Disney's Ghostbusters: Who Ya Gonna Call?
by RetroWriter2012
Summary: A Disney remake/sequel of the ultra-hit movie, Ghostbusters, with a special twist on the original characters from the film, featuring new characters along with Disney characters! Please post your reviews after reading all 13 chapters of this crazy tale!
1. Terror At The Tipton

**Chapter One: Terror At The Tipton**

October 2004

Alexis Embers had always thought superheroes existed only in comic books. It was a common thing to assume because this was real life and there weren't such a thing as superheroes in real life. Then again, she lived in a society where a mouse with red shorts and round ears walked a dog named after a dwarf planet around all the time. Could anything else be just as uncommon as that?

_Yes, a woman at twenty-four years of age who still reads comics_, she thought to herself, as she stood amongst a crowd of New Yorkers that had gathered to watch the strange lights and flashes emanating from the upper floors of the Tipton Hotel.

They had evacuated much of the residents of the hotel, from the ditzy London Tipton (daughter of Wilfred Tipton, the owner of the hotel) to some twins named Zack and Cody, whose mother (Carey Martin) was one of the two people still trapped upstairs in the hotel, for some unknown reason, along with a guy named Arwin.

London was standing nearby Alexis, as she was contacting her father over the phone, sounding panicked. "Daddy, I don't know what happened! One minute, I was partying with some friends..." She stopped for a second to hear her father give her an angry response. "No, Daddy. It wasn't a _big_ party. It was a little-big party. Oh, oh! Johnny D. was there! Did you know he's signed up for 'Pirates 4'?"

Alexis rolled her eyes in disbelief. Here they were, near the end of the world, and this stupid girl was giddy about a fourth _Pirates of the Caribbean_ film. _Wow! Is New York ever the most unbelievable place in the world, even at the end of it!_

Mr. Marion Moseby, the somewhat uptight manager of the hotel, ran out of the building with Maddie Fitzpatrick, the teenage candy-counter girl, and Esteban Ramirez, the head bellman. He sounded highly urgent as he told the hotel residents standing outside, "This situation will be taken care of immediately, ladies and gentlemen. I just alerted the mayor of our situation, and he has agreed to let the Ghostbusters handle this."

Alexis smiled; she knew that they were going to come, despite whether or not they were charged by some idiot from the Environmental Protection Agency named Louise Peck for misuse of toxic chemicals (or some mess like that).

"Aw, man!" Zack exclaimed. "The Ghostbusters are comin', and here I am without my camera!"

Cody gave his brother a dirty look. "Are you insane?!" he yelled. "Mom is still up there and heaven knows what's happening to her! And all you care about is some stupid five-second photo?!"

Zack paused as if he was taking a minute to think about what he just said, and then he quickly responded to Cody with a simple "Yep."

Feeling the need to choke his only brother, Cody was about to do just that, until the screaming of sirens turned his and everyone else's attention to an arriving motorcade. They could clearly see the Ecto-1 (or "The Ectomobile" as a few fans called it), the standard vehicle of the Ghostbusters, a 1959 Cadillac ambulance/hearse combination car fitted with communication wafers and antennae and blue and red strobes. As it rounded the corner, a huge cheer went up from the crowd.

London was jumping up and down with excitement over the arrival of New York's Ghostbusters team. "Oh, oh! Daddy, Daddy! They're here! They're here!" She paused for a minute to listen to her father ask a question. "Who? The Ghostbusters, Daddy! They're here to exchange autographs with me..." She then lowly added afterwards, "Oh, yeah...and save the day, too."

Alexis tried to ignore London's conversation the best way she could as she watched the Ectomobile pull up in front of the Tipton Hotel. The doors flew open and one-by-one the Ghostbusters jumped out. The first was Dr. Kimberly Venkman, a 27-year-old redhead Caucasian who was one of the three parapsychologists on the team, although she also held a PhD in psychology. She had a very flippant personality and proved to be very lackadaisical to her profession. Still, she was well liked by most of her fans—who were mostly men—presumably because of her magnificent beauty. It was this reason, as well as her savvy, street-smart attitude, that made her a reasonable front woman for the team.

The second team member to exit the Ectomobile was Dr. J.G. "Jay" Stantz, a 19-year-old Hispanic Mensa-level genius who skipped most of grade school and started college at eleven years old. He was an expert on paranormal history and metallurgy, having a childlike enthusiasm towards his work and forthright acceptance of paranormal activity. Kimberly had often credited him as being the "heart" of the team and kind of looked to him like a kid brother—something that came from the friendship they shared during their college years.

Jay was responsible for pioneering the team's theories and designing and building the equipment used for catching and containing ghosts, along with the third team member to have exited the Ectomobile, Dr. Sean Spengler. Like Kimberly and Jay, he had an expertise in the paranormal. The tall, laconic, bespectacled, and black 22-year-old scientist was heavily addicted to science, thus making him the "brains" of the team. If the other members of the team didn't understand something about their situations, they would ask him to explain—although they often wouldn't understand the answer he gave. Although brilliant, Spengler didn't have much social ability, and he generally needed Kimberly to do the talking for the group.

And, lastly, there was 34-year-old Diana Zeddemore, the only member of the team who didn't hold a PhD or had any backgrounds in the paranormal, the only other Caucasian woman on the team. She was hired on the spot by the team in the previous week, seemingly because she was the only applicant at the time. Despite her lack of PhDs, she proved to be someone who could serve as a voice of reason, displaying far more common sense than the others.

That much was certain when she told her teammates, "I think we should get on a plane right now and go to Australia or Indonesia until this blows over. Wouldn't you all think so?"

"Tell you what, Z," Kimberly said, "I'll make a note of your suggestion and possibly bring it up later if this thing really does get out of hand." Diana rolled her eyes in annoyance while they pulled out a rack from the rear of the Ecto-1, containing their Proton Packs—a backpack-sized particle accelerator with a handheld wand that fired a proton stream, which polarized with the negatively charged energy of a ghost, allowing it to be held in the stream while active.

Once they had finished gearing themselves up, they waved to the roaring crowd and started heading for the lobby entrance to the Tipton Hotel. Just as they neared the front of the building, they looked up at the roof, seeing the blinding flash of light that shot from there.

"Aw, man!" Jay exclaimed. "Looks like we're gonna have to do a little overtime on this one!"

Kimberly scoffed at his comment. "Ya think, dude?"

The whole building seemed to groan as if under enormous pressure. The concrete façade then cracked open and the pavement in front of the building collapsed, dropping the Ghostbusters into an enormous sinkhole.

Alexis and the rest of the crowd gasped, believing they had just witnessed the end of a marvelous team before their very eyes. She didn't want to admit it—at least not right now; she wanted to have some bit of hope that they had survived; and she prayed that they had.

Her prayers were instantly answered, after a tense moment of silence, as the Ghostbusters popped up and climbed out of the pit. Kim was quick to crack a joke as they did, "Man! I've heard of underground parking, but this is ridiculous."

"Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!" The crowd cheered, as the team flashed an "O.K." sign to everyone and entered the Tipton Hotel.

Moseby deeply sighed as he watched them go. "I hope they take care of this situation as quickly as possible."

"This is no sweat, Mr. Moseby," Maddie said. "Remember that business with that straight-up nasty, slimy green ghost London found on the thirtieth floor?"

Moseby shivered. "Don't remind me!"

* * *

On the rooftop of the Tipton Hotel, Carey Martin and Arwin Hawkhauser emerged from the stairwell, both looking extraordinarily pale and disheveled. Carey's eyes were wide open, filled with a kind of love-slave longing, and her clothes were seductively tattered. Arwin was walking stiffly in his janitor attire with a glazed look in his eyes. Both of them were holding each other's hands as they moved across the rooftop.

Carey and Arwin were possessed by demigods known as Zuul and Vinz Clortho, the former haunting Carey in her own suite from inside her refrigerator. The Hittites, Mesopotamians, and Sumerians and a minion of Gozer—a Sumerian God—worshiped Zuul around 6,000 B.C. She and Vinz addressed each other as "The Gatekeeper" and "The Keymaster" respectively because of the role they played in opening the elaborate, decorative temple located on the rooftop of the Tipton, complete with an altar, stairs, and Babylonian columns.

Carey and Arwin approached the Temple and mounted the pedestals that were once occupied by doglike demons, once statues but brought to life on the same night the two Tipton residents were possessed. Zack and Cody often hung around the rooftop and referred to these statues as "Terror Dogs," a nickname that seemed highly appropriate at this point in time.

When Carey and Arwin were in position, the walls of the temple began to vibrate and blinding beams of light flashed from all the windows of the Tipton Hotel.

* * *

Inside the stairwell, the exhausted Ghostbusters were trudging up thirty-five flights of stairs, panting and hacking on the way up. Kimberly was the one who was falling behind a little, and she expressed her distain in the best words possible: "For years I've busted my butt at the gym! And I can't even figure out why the heck I'm even out of breath _now_ of all times! What the hell, man?!"

"Relax, Kim." J.G. said. "We're just about there."

"Alright, well, when we do get there, let me know," Kimberly remarked, "because I'm two seconds away from throwing up!"

A few more floors up, the Ghostbusters staggered into the hallway, completely exhausted. Still, Sean was able to take the time to observe the hallway and its décor. "Art deco...very nice."

Kimberly glanced in his direction and frowned. "Yeah, we should write a letter to Mr. Tipton when this is all over," she sarcastically said before they headed over to the door to Carey Martin's suite.

"Should we ring the doorbell?" Diana asked.

"Why not?" Kimberly replied. "We'll say, 'Oh, hi. We're the Ghostbusters. Don't mind us. We're just here to kick some demigod ass.'"

Diana shook her head at her and then turned the door with a frame that was charred and blackened by soot. Instead of ringing the doorbell, she knocked. And on the first knock, the door instantly fell off its hinges and crashed to the floor. As soon as it happened, Diana was already heading the other direction.

"See you all in Indonesia!"

Kimberly quickly stood in her path and pinned her against the wall. "You know, for someone who _claims_ she practices Martial Arts in her resume, you really are chicken-shit."

"Come on, girls." J.G. said. "A lot of people are counting on us down there. You don't want to disappoint the kids, would ya?"

Diana looked down towards the floor, thinking about what Stantz said and admitting how right he was. She was mostly into this ghost-busting gig for the kids, who were their biggest fans. "Alright," she said with a nod. "Let's do this."

Kimberly playfully and gently slapped her face, smiling. "That's my girl."

"Did you just slap me?"

"It was a pat."

"No, that was a slap."

"A pat."

While the two ladies continued going back and forth, Stantz and Spengler gaped at the damage to the suite. The exterior building wall was completely gone, providing an unobstructed view of the Hudson and New Jersey. All the furniture was overturned and the other walls were cracked. A powerful wind blew through the apartment, fluttering the shredded curtains.

The team entered the kitchen area and noticed how the refrigerator had been blown away, revealing a hole in the wall and the entrance to a stone staircase behind it. "Where do these stairs go?" Jay curiously asked.

"Where else? Up!" Kimberly said, and she was about to approach them until a sudden bolt of lightning struck the staircase, putting a monster-sized crack into one of the stairs. Venkman then turned to her fellow teammates and ushered them on one-by-one, "C'mon! Gentleman first! Go! Get your butts up there!"

_Our "fearless" leader_, Diana thought in sarcasm.

* * *

Carey and Arwin stared blankly at the temple and began a miraculous, terrifying transformation into the hideous forms of the Terror Dogs. The solid stone walls of the temple rumbled ominously and separated. Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters arrived on the rooftop in time to see the entire scene take place, perplexed and astonished of what they were seeing. They saw the walls open, revealing the secret architecture of the temple: a stone staircase leading to a set of monumental doors; beyond them was a massive pyramid that appeared to be suspended in midair with no visible means of support.

The possessed humans once known as Carey and Arwin had completed their transformation into the Terror Dogs. They turned and snarled menacingly at the Ghostbusters, who couldn't believe their eyes when they saw them.

"Anybody got any _Bacon Bits_? You know...in case they want to take a chunk out of our asses?" Kimberly inquired, and the others weren't certain if she was joking or not from that statement.

The heavy rumbling of moving stone drew their attention back to the temple. The Terror Dogs had taken ritual positions on the staircase. The heavy stone gates opened and a dark, bluish form started moving down the stairs. The Ghostbusters instantly recognized the form as the Greek god of the underworld, Hades.

"What the...?" Diana began, until the creep with the blue fire for hair interrupted her.

"Now, now, before you finish that wonderful phrase," Hades said, "Allow me to introduce myself…"

"Don't bother, dude." Kimberly remarked. "We've all seen _Hercules_ and played _Kingdom Hearts_ about a billion times already."

Jay cleared his throat and sheepishly said, "A billion _and two_."

Kim snickered at J.G., while Hades seemed a bit frustrated over the interruption. "_Anyways!_ I should warn you measly mortals that you are _way_ in over your heads with this Gozer guy. I mean, he's like bad news, man!"

"Let us be the judge of that, Hades." J.G. remarked. "What connections do you have with Gozer anyways?"

Hades chuckled. "_Hello!_ I'm a god! He's a god! See a connection here?"

"Yeah," Kimberly said, "A little candlelight dinner, and you two crazy fruitcakes can really set it off."

Hades was about to make a comeback to her witty comment, but then stopped when he realized that he didn't have one. "Oy! And I thought I had all the good one-liners." Shaking his head, he refocused his attention on the moment at hand. "Alright! Have it your way, mortals! It's your funeral…_literally_. I'll be waiting here to collect the bodies." He then turned his attention to an unseen party and yelled, "Pain! Panic! Introduction, please!"

Out of nowhere, two small, strange-looking demons—one pink and one turquoise—magically appeared at the feet of Hades. The pink demon (Panic) started to say, "Presenting the Sumerian God you all know and fear…"

"…Gozer the Gozerian!" The turquoise demon (Pain) concluded.

Hades, Pain, and Panic then moved to the side, as a bright white light emerged and descended the stairs, slowly materializing into a human form. That form was a thin, hollow-cheeked woman in her mid-twenties, her eyes burning red pinholes and looking around at the spectacular rooftop view. She then acknowledged the two Terror Dogs and started stroking them like house pets.

The Ghostbusters stared at the apparition with wide-eyed bewilderment. "Hold up!" Kimberly exclaimed. "Gozer's a chick?!"

"Yeah, I thought he was a man." Diana added.

"He becomes whatever he wants to be." Sean clarified.

Hades snickered at the surprised mortals. "Suddenly that 'candlelight dinner' crack doesn't seem all that smart anymore, does it?"

Kimberly gave him a smug look and then refocused her attention back on Gozer. "I don't care what she, he, or _it_ is! She's not gonna get past us!"

"That's right." J.G. agreed. "Because we're a team!"

"You said it, sweetie." Kim said before patting him on the shoulder and adding, "Now go get her!"

Stantz slowly turned in her direction and almost glared at her. She winked at him in a way that was hard to determine as being genuine or mocked. Whatever it might've been, he was put into position at that point in time to deal with the massive threat they were currently facing.

Cautiously, J.G. took a few steps up the staircase and boldly said, "Gozer the Gozerian!" She looked up and seemed to notice them for the first time. Jay took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and rapidly uttered, "As a duly-constituted representative of the city of New York, and on behalf of the county and state of New York, the United States of America, the planet Earth and all its inhabitants, I hereby order you to cease and desist any and all supernatural activity and return at once to your place of origin or next parallel dimension." He then took another deep breath and sighed, feeling somewhat relieved.

"Well, that ought to do it." Kimberly said. "Thanks very much, Jay."

Hades just rolled his eyes at the mortals, while Gozer stood up to her full height and regarded Stantz curiously. "Are you a god?" she asked.

"Oh, this _should_ be good," murmured Hades, looking on with a hint of interest.

J.G. turned to Kim, as if summoning her for some sort of advice. She simply shrugged her shoulders and motioned for him to do whatever was best. So Stantz returned his glance on Gozer and, being compulsively honest, gave a simple answer: "No."

"Then…DIE!" Gozer raised her arms and blew away the Ghostbusters with searing bolts of energy.

Hades watched this with intense excitement, flames shooting out from his body as he screamed, "Yes, baby! Yes! That is what I'm talkin' about! YES!"

Momentarily stunned, the Ghostbusters tumbled all the way down the stairs and nearly fell over the edge of the rooftop. Down below, the large crowd of New Yorkers saw the searing bolts of energy sparkle in all directions, knowing that whatever was going on up there couldn't be going well.

The Ghostbusters quickly picked themselves up, moving as far away from the edge as possible. As soon as they were safe, Diana grabbed J.G. by the collar of his jumpsuit and shouted to his face, "The next time when someone asks you if you're a god…YOU SAY 'YES'!"

Jay just simply nodded in approval, while Kimberly stepped forward and glared at the two supernatural figures ahead of them. "Are you twerps ready to give up?" Hades asked.

"The only thing we're ready to do is show you prehistoric bitches how we do things downtown!" Kimberly exclaimed, as she and her teammates leaped into action, one-by-one activating their wands (or "Proton Guns" as they sometimes called them) and taking up positions for an entrapment. In the meantime, Gozer was bracing for the onslaught. As soon as Kim and her team had the apparition aimed in their sights, she yelled, "Let's toast this chick!"

Together, they fired the particle streams from their Proton Guns. However, their mark was missed when Gozer leaped out of the way with superhuman agility and executed a perfect double-flip with a half-twisting round-off at the end; she landed flawlessly on the altar right behind the team.

Kimberly pretended not to be all that impressed, even though she was stoked out of her mind by what she saw. "Please! I made better moves than that while on the cheerleading squad," she said.

"Forget the trapping! Just blast her!" J.G. yelled, and they fired away at Gozer, who just stood there calmly and absorbed the force of the streams. There was a brilliant pink flash and Gozer disappeared.

Seeing this, Hades and his two minions blinked rapidly in confusion. "Wait! Wh-What just happened here?" he asked.

"Maybe she just, like, spontaneously combusted or something?" Panic assumed.

"Can ghosts even do that?" Pain inquired.

The Ghostbusters stared for a long moment, finding it hard to believe that they won so easily. They were uncertain at first if they had, and then Diana let out a triumphant whoop. "Hot damn! That's what I'm talkin' about! Nobody can mess with us! We are the best!"

Sean scanned the area with his Psycho-Kinetic Energy meter (or "P.K.E. Meter" as he called it), a handheld device used to locate and measure that kind of energy emitted by ghosts; he wasn't at all convinced that the danger had passed.

"I don't believe it! We neutronized it!" J.G. happily exclaimed. "She's a molecular non-entity now!"

"Not only do we have the tools, but we've got the talent to back it up!" Diana jubilantly cheered.

"Oh, yeah! We bad-asses tonight, y'all!" Kimberly said, as she, J.G., and Diana all exchanged high-fives.

Sean's face suddenly registered extreme shock as he addressed his teammates. "I hate to break up the celebration...but this is _extraordinarily_ bad!"

Before either of them could ask what was wrong, there was a deep seismic rumble and the entire building vibrated. They looked around nervously as the Tipton Hotel itself started to sway. Cement carvings and moldings around the edge of the roof cracked and broke off, falling toward the crowd below.

Noting the oncoming danger, Alexis rushed to Zack and Cody and shielded them the best way she could while the rest of the crowd screamed and ran to avoid the cement debris that rained down the side of the building. Mr. Moseby tried to calm down the hotel residents. "People, please! Try to stay in an orderly fashion as you flee for your lives here! We don't want anybody getting hurt!"

Maddie, who stood by in disbelief over Moseby's assertive attitude in the midst of all the chaos, suddenly realized her boss was standing directly in the path of danger, as a huge chuck of debris was falling towards him. "Mr. Moseby! Look out!" she cried upon running and tackling him out of harm's way in time for the chuck of debris to crash on the spot and place an enormous hole there. Lying on top of him, Maddie asked Mr. Moseby, "Are you alright?"

He had a look on his face that was registering great pain. "My…back!"

Back on the rooftop of the Tipton Hotel, the Ghostbusters looked up at the sky, waiting for the big blow, as an incredibly loud thunderclap rocked the entire rooftop. Hades stood calmly where he was, delighted in all of the chaos that erupted all around, while Pain and Panic were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

A bolt of lightning crackled from the swirling dark cloud in the sky, striking the rooftop. The Ghostbusters stood there, facing their new God, like Moses on Mount Sinai. And then Gozer spoke to them in a voice that could be heard throughout the entire world:

**SUBCREATURES! GOZER THE GOZERIAN, GOZER THE DESTRUCTOR, VOLGUUS ZILDROHAR, THE TRAVELLER HAS COME! CHOOSE AND PERISH!**

"Didn't I warn ya not to miss with the gods?" Hades told the Ghostbusters, following with a wicked cackle.

Kimberly looked up in confusion. "Is it talking to us?"

"What's he talking about? Choose what?" Diana asked.

J.G. brought himself to address the unseen deity to get to the bottom of all this. "What do you mean 'choose'? We don't understand."

**CHOOSE! CHOOSE THE FORM OF THE DESTRUCTOR!**

"I believe what he's saying is that since we're going to be sacrificed anyway, we get to choose the form we want him to take." Sean assessed.

"You mean the form of a Yugoslavian model wasn't enough for him?" Diana uttered. "I don't know whether to find that sad or appalling."

Kimberly's mind was fixed on what Spengler had just told them. "You mean to tell me if I stand here and think of Hannah Montana, then Hannah Montana's gonna come and destroy us all?" She scoffed at the idea, but then quickly realized how much sense it made, considering all that was already happening. "Alright! Just everybody clear your heads, okay? Don't think of anything. We've only got one shot at this."

**THE CHOICE IS MADE!**

"What the fu…?! Nobody choose anything!" shouted a panicked Kimberly.

**THE TRAVELLER HAS COME!**

"But we didn't choose anything!" Kimberly yelled, before turning to Sean. "Did you choose anything?"

"No!" Spengler quickly responded.

She then turned her attention to Diana. "Did you?"

"My mind's a total void!" Diana exclaimed.

Venkman then looked up towards the sky and innocently said, "I sure as hell didn't choose any…" She then stopped once she realized there was one person who she hadn't turned to yet: J.G.

They all turned and looked towards him, and immediately he said, "Why's everybody looking at me? I didn't think of anything either!"

"Well, there is only four of us here, Jay," said Kim. "So that would only leave you."

"Unless," said Sean, who suddenly began to realize a possibility, as he looked over the edge of the building and down towards the crowd of people, "One of them could be accounted for as well."

The other Ghostbusters looked over the edge and shook their heads in disbelief. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Kim exclaimed. "You mean our lives could be destroyed by some asshole's imagination of a…"

"LOOK!" J.G. suddenly screamed, pointing southward.

They all turned and looked in that direction, past Columbus Circle, where part of something big and white moved between the buildings, accompanied by thunderous footsteps of almost seismic proportions. By the time it reached Broadway and 55th, they caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a fat, white arm. The thundering footsteps continued to plod upon reaching Columbus Circle as the thing started to emerge from behind the buildings. From what the Ghostbusters could additionally make out, a blue garment seemed to be covering its enormous chest.

"Aw, shit! What in God's name is that thing?!" Diana exclaimed as she noticed a large, square, bobbing, and laughing white head atop a massive body of similar puffed white squares.

J.G. recognized it instantly, a look of shock registering his face. "Oh, man! It's…It's…"

* * *

"THE STAY-PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN!" Cody screamed as he and the rest of the crowd looked up in shock at the gigantic white figure that loomed over them. It was dressed in a tiny sailor's hat and a blue vest with a button undone in the middle, revealing a white belly. People in the street fled in panic as the marshmallow feet padded along, kicking over lampposts and mailboxes. The driver of a Volkswagen jumped out from his car, just before an enormous white marshmallow foot came down and flattened the automobile.

While everyone else was running in panic, London Tipton remained where she was, gawking up at the marshmallow man in utter disbelief. Her cell phone still in hand and placed next to her ear, she muttered into the receiver, "Uh, Daddy? Remember that cute little mascot I loved so much on those marshmallows you always bought for me to make s'mores?"

* * *

"I don't know if it might be the economy or George W. Bush," Kimberly stated, "But this city has gone to shit in just one night."

The Ghostbusters watched as the Stay-Puft Man plodded relentlessly uptown, coming directly towards them. The ground rumbled as his big, soft feet came down on the pavement. "What the hell do we do now?" Diana asked, hoping someone would have a reasonable plan in less than a second.

Spengler adjusted his Proton Gun as he said, "Full-stream with strogon pulse!"

"I don't know what you just said, man," Kim uttered, "but I'm all for it!" They stepped to the edge of the roof, moving like warriors ready to face the consequences. Looking down, they saw the Stay-Puft Man reach the building and then, using the church next door as a stepping stone, begin climbing the wall. "Oh, no that big, cute glob of marshmallow goodness did _not_ just step on a church in my town! Roast this freak!"

They each fired point-blank at the Stay-Puft Man. He bellowed with pain and rage, as the beams struck him right in the chest and set his skin on fire. He began to burn with a blue flame that was spreading quickly across his torso and down his arms. He swatted one of those flaming arms at the Ghostbusters, forcing them to back away from the edge of the rooftop before he caught them.

Diana shook her head. "This is unbelievable! We're gonna be killed by a hundred-foot marshmallow!"

"Ironic, isn't it?" said Hades, still standing in front of the temple. "A bunch of marshmallows killed by a marshmallow. That's gotta be the most brilliant death there is. I mean, ya can't write this stuff!"

The Ghostbusters glared at Hades, growing extremely agitated over his obscene commentary. As they gazed in his direction, Sean looked past him and towards the inside of the temple, from the suspended pyramid to the two Terror Dogs. He then looked to his Proton Gun, an idea quickly popping into his thoughts. "I have a radical idea!" he exclaimed, and the others turned to him with hopeful expressions. "The temple door swings both ways. We could reverse the particle flow through the gate by…" He paused for a brief moment, hesitating to utter the last part of his plan, "…crossing the streams."

The other Ghostbusters looked at Spengler with doubtful expressions. "Whoa! Excuse me, Sean!" Kim assessed. "But as I remember from the last time our butts were on the line in this stupid hotel, you told me that crossing the streams was _bad_! And now you're willing to risk everything, including our lives and the hefty payment we're getting from the crazy black dude with the stick up his ass."

"Not necessarily," said Spengler. "There's definitely a _very slim_ chance we'll survive."

The others hesitated for a long moment, completely uncertain of whether to go through with this; but then, as the flaming head of the Stay-Puft Man suddenly popped up and roared behind them, Kimberly immediately charged up her Proton Gun and said, "I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it! LET'S DO IT!"

The rest of them charged up their wands as well, and they fired directly into the temple straight ahead. While they were combining their particle beams into one large stream, Hades was starting to realize the danger and exploded in intense rage, orange flames surrounding his body.

"I don't believe this! I am not gonna be beaten by a bunch of freakin' mort—" And before he could even finish his rant, the entire front of the temple was obliterated along with the door, taking Hades and his minions along with it.

With the destruction of the earthly portal, the Stay-Puft Man was suddenly engulfed in a cyclonic wind that began to swirl around him like a firestorm. The flames were whipped higher and higher as the tornado picked up rotational speed. The Marshmallow Man then seemed to have exploded from deep inside, creating a flaming air burst high above the rooftops. All this had occurred while the Ghostbusters had been blasted off their feet.

The fireball reached its maximum explosive force and a sudden jet of air pressure occurred like a titanium vacuum cleaner in the sky, sucking the flaming mass of gasses and ash up through the atmosphere and right out of the dimension. The dark clouds disappeared with it, leaving a beautiful clear blue sky over the whole area.

Down below, Alexis was totally amazed over all that had just happened. Globs of marshmallow goo were all over the street corner, and even London Tipton was showered by some, covering her from head to toe. Zack and Cody were safe, as were Maddie and Mr. Moseby (despite the fact that he had thrown out his back). Everyone seemed to have been alright down there. But what about the people _up there_? What about the Ghostbusters?

The explosion she witnessed was quite intense. There was no way anyone could have survived it. And, for a while, Alexis believed that her favorite heroes, the Ghostbusters, had reached the end of their run.

And then she heard Zack and Cody say in unison, "Here they come!"

She looked up towards the entrance to the Tipton Hotel and saw the Ghostbusters emerge, all covered in marshmallow goo, with Carey and Arwin—looking safe, unharmed, and (most of all) _normal_—by their side. They were met with roaring applause from the crowd of New Yorkers. Once again, they had saved the day…and the world.

And Alexis Embers was there to witness it all.

**END OF CHAPTER ONE**


	2. Call In The Replacements

**Chapter Two: Call In The Replacements**

December 2008

The rooftop of the Tipton Hotel had not been cleaned since the "Gozer Incident" from 2004, because no janitor—not even poor Arwin, who still had his fears—had the courage to go up there. Even all of the suites from 2330 (the former suite of Carey Martin and her twin sons) and above were abandoned, due to being so close to the scene of the incident. Although the Martins still live at the Tipton Hotel, they had never dared themselves to return upstairs—even though Cody and Zack dare each other at times, just for no apparent reason.

One particular evening, Arwin and Mr. Moseby had to go up to the rooftop to install a new state-of-the-art, larger-than-life, and any-other-cool-phrase-with-hyphens-in-between satellite dish that was received in the mail on Mr. Tipton's request for London to have a thousand more channels. Mr. Moseby wanted it on the rooftop as soon as possible.

Of course, Arwin's fears got in the way of this hardly simple task as he told Mr. Moseby in the lobby, "There's still _a lot_ of creepy stuff up there, sir. It smells bad, too. Year-old marshmallow residue…all over the place!"

"I have a cleaning crew being sent up there to take care of that foul mess," said Moseby. "They'll be up there with you."

Arwin sighed in relief. "Oh, that's good. For a second there, I thought I was gonna be all by my—"

Suddenly the phone at the front desk rang and Moseby answered it. The voice of a cleaning crewman was on the other end, giving Moseby some news that neither he nor Arwin appreciated. "What do you mean you won't be cleaning our rooftop?" He listened to his answer and frowned. "Because of what happened four years ago up there? Well, that's hardly any reason to…" He suddenly heard a dial tone and looked perplexed. "Hello? Hello?!"

Arwin felt like he was going to pass out from overwhelming fear at that moment. But he maintained himself once he noticed London Tipton coming towards him and Mr. Moseby. Once she saw all of the cardboard boxes sitting around, each with the brand name to the dish printed on them, she clapped her hands together and jumped up and down in excitement. "Yay, Daddy! He got me my plate!"

Moseby made a dumbfounded look and politely said, "I believe it's called 'dish,' London."

"But it doesn't look edible." She said.

_I give up_, Moseby thought, as he rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"If I go up there on that rooftop, I might be edible to those ghosts," said the trembling Arwin.

Moseby threw his arms up in frustration, as he walked around the front desk and faced Arwin. "Alright, that's it! I'm going up there to the rooftop with you and going to show you that there is absolutely _nothing_ to be afraid of!"

London then raised her hand up high, while jumping up and down again. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Can I go, too? Can I go, too? Can I go, too?"

"Aren't you afraid of going up there, London?" Arwin asked her.

London scoffed. "I've been on enough jets to _not_ be scared of heights, Arwin."

"But that's not…" Arwin began, but he stopped when Mr. Moseby tapped his shoulder.

He whispered to him, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Arwin."

Arwin frowned with confusion. "Why would I?" Moseby stared at him for a long moment, until Arwin finally figured it out. "Oh! You meant London!" Mr. Moseby smiled and nodded in sarcasm, while Arwin again sighed in relief.

* * *

The rooftop looked as if a massive flock of pigeons had flown over and let loose. Covered entirely with a white, hardened substance that used to be marshmallows, it was sticky and almost difficult for London, Arwin, and Mr. Moseby to walk on.

"This is so gross!" London exclaimed, before slapping Moseby across the arm. "Moseby, why did you bring me up here?!"

Moseby rubbed his arm, trying his best to maintain a smile in front of the boss's daughter. "Because you wanted to."

"Then why did you let me want to come up here?!" London exclaimed, and Moseby had to stop for a second to figure out what she just asked, considering how fast she said it and how warped the words were.

Meanwhile, Arwin was tearing open the cardboard boxes and looked at the billions of pieces for the 'assembly-required' satellite dish; for a moment, his mind was totally off of the _possibly_ haunted Tipton rooftop. "Boy, they must've been kidding when they said you can 'put it together in less than fifteen minutes.'"

Moseby saw the pieces himself and was just as shocked as Arwin. "Perhaps we should just hire someone to put it together. This looks like it could take years doing it ourselves."

"No, no, Mr. Moseby." Arwin protested. "I can handle this. I _am_ a repairman, so this should be like child's play."

"Then should we get a child to do it?" London inquired, and Arwin & Moseby gawked at her in annoyance. She just looked back at them, smiling, not seeing the absurdity of her question.

Refocusing his attention back on his task (and doing his best to ignore London), Arwin reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "At least they included the instructions," he said. "No matter what anybody tells you, things are always easier when there are instructions." Unfolding the paper, Arwin soon realized that it was as long as him—a huge list of instructions. He sheepishly grinned and added, "Even if they're six feet long," and then read few lines off the paper, "And in perfect Japanese."

"Oh! Japanese!" London exclaimed. "I can read that!" She hopped over to Arwin and took the instructions out of his hand, staring at them for a very long time.

Becoming quickly impatient, Moseby lifted his arms apart and asked, "Well…what does it say?"

"I don't know," said London, a dimwitted smile still showing on her face.

"But I thought you said that you can read Japanese." Moseby remarked.

The smile faded from London's face, as she frowned at Moseby and said, "Well, duh! What do you think I'm doing now?"

Moseby and Arwin shook their heads in disgust. "London…we thought you meant that you can _translate_ what it says," said Moseby.

"Don't you need the Internet for that?" She responded.

Again, Moseby shook his head, feeling like he was wasting his whole time there. "I'm calling a professional to handle this," he said. "It's clear that you two don't have the brainpower for it."

Moseby attempted to leave, until Arwin ran directly in front of him and blocked his path. "Mr. Moseby, please! I've worked with enough hardware around the hotel to at least _guess_ how this one works. I can really put it together in less than fifteen minutes. Just…give me a chance."

Moseby saw the desperate look on his face and knew that he would never live with himself if he didn't at least give his employees one chance at something. He often did, and sometimes they would have proven themselves worthy afterwards. So he shrugged and told Arwin, "Alright. I'll let you give it a try. But _only_ for fifteen minutes. If you go past even sixteen, I'm heading downstairs and calling a technician."

Arwin, extraordinarily pleased, got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around Moseby's legs. He wept heavily as he thanked him repeatedly. "You'll never regret this, Mr. Moseby! I swear I'll make you proud!"

Moseby felt himself becoming wobbly with Arwin's grasp ruining his balance; but, if it weren't for the person who came up behind him and gave an additional hug, then he would've fallen. However, he soon realized that person was London, who—for some strange reason—was hugging Moseby as well.

"I just love group hugs!" She exclaimed.

Looking up at the starry sky above, Moseby pleaded for some higher power to come and take him away there and then, ridding him of this crazy life he lived.

**17 Minutes Later**

Downstairs in the lobby, Zack and Cody just exited the elevator, and the first place they headed was the candy counter where Maddie was currently working. When the Martin twins approached her, she was reading an article posted in the week's newspaper that was on a story printed in the previous year. That day marked the first anniversary of the story, and Maddie still found it hard to believe, especially after so long.

Zack was the first one to walk right up to Maddie and say, "What's happenin', baby!"

Ignoring Zack's adolescent greeting, Maddie immediately decided to share the newspaper article with the twins. "Did you guys know today is the first anniversary of when they split up?"

Although Zack was totally lost in the dark on what she was talking about, Cody instantly caught her drift. "I know. It's terrible how they would just end something that great. I mean, they're the greatest thing that has ever happened to this city."

Zack was about to ask a question until Maddie spoke first. "I know! Of course, business has been slow as of late, and not too many people need them like they did back then. Still, they're the coolest group I've ever seen. And I _still_ miss them."

Again, Zack tried to make a comment; but his brother robbed him of that opportunity. "It felt like only yesterday when they came here," he said, and then realized something. "Oh, wait! It _was_ yesterday! One of them stopped by and asked for directions!"

"And bought candy from _this_ shop!" Maddie sadly added.

"And signed autographs for all the fans!"

"And…"

"HOLD UP!" Zack yelled, catching the attention of most of the guests in the lobby. "Could one of you tell me what the heck it is that you're talking about?"

Before either Cody or Maddie could answer, a collection of ear-piercing screams bellowed from the elevator, just as soon as it had opened. The first one to come running out was Arwin, who repeatedly shouted "They're back! They're back!" on his way out of the building, shoving several guests aside and knocking a few down in the process.

Mr. Moseby was the second to dash out from the elevator, heading directly towards the front desk to use the phone. Picking up the receiver, he had the wrong end placed over his ear, but he barely even noticed as he dialed a series of numbers on the phone. Only when he didn't hear any sound—not even a dial tone—come over the receiver did he realize that he was listening to the wrong end and turned it around.

And finally, London came out of the elevator, not running but walking stiffly across the room, doing nothing but letting out a high-pitched scream. She headed in the direction of the candy counter and screamed right next to Maddie, Cody, and Zack, forcing them to cover their ears. She had done this for nearly a whole minute, until Maddie covered her mouth and stopped her.

"London," she said, "I'm going to move my hand on the count of five. And when I do, you'll stop screaming and tell me what's got you, Mr. Moseby, and Arwin so freaked out. Okay?" London nodded. "Alright. One…Two…Three…Four…Five…"

As soon as Maddie moved her hand, London went into a rapid string of words that sounded a lot like gibberish to Maddie, Zack, and Cody. In fact, if it were put into text (which it can, in this case), it would come out a lot like this: "MosebyArwinandIwenttotheroof toinstallDaddy'snewsatelliteplateandsawthis reallyfreakymonsterwithflame sforhairandwantsustobowtohis willandhandovertheGhos tbustersorhewillturnusallint ohorribleslavesoftheunderwor ld!" And somehow after all of that, she managed to let out another long, ear-piercing scream, which Maddie had to muffle again by covering her mouth.

"Whoa." Zack said. "That sure was a mouthful."

"I never knew London was capable of that many words at that kind of speed." Cody remarked.

Having a huge headache trying to make sense of what London just said, Maddie turned to Mr. Moseby and asked, "What's going on?"

"We have another ghost problem, that's all you need to know!" Moseby exclaimed, dialing the same number again and again. "Why in blazes can I reach them?"

"Who?" Cody asked him. "You mean the Ghostbusters?"

"No, the Power Rangers," said a sarcastic Moseby. "YES! OF COURSE I MEAN THE GHOSTBUSTERS!"

Maddie and Cody exchanged a worried look. "Uh, Mr. Moseby? You might want to consider someone else for this one." Maddie suggested.

"There's no one else to consider for something like this, not even that David Blane guy, and all he knows is how to stay in one place for twenty-four hours." Moseby said. "No, we need the Ghostbusters!"

Cody hesitated for a moment and then nervously said, "They're unavailable, Mr. Moseby."

Moseby stared at Cody blankly, as he hung up the phone. "What do you mean 'unavailable'?"

"I really think you should read this to refresh your memory, sir." Maddie said, as she went over to Moseby with the newspaper and handed it to him.

He took the newspaper and read the article that Maddie had pointed out to him. After spending a moment to realize what he was reading and remind himself of all this, Moseby dropped the newspaper, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, and he collapsed right in front of Zack, Cody, Maddie, and London (who wasn't screaming so much anymore).

"Well, I think he took it rather well." Cody said.

Zack picked up the newspaper and gazed at the article. The heading above it had read, **"First Anniversary of Ghostbusters' Retirement**." It then went on to a whole retelling of an incident that occurred in December of 2007, shortly after the team defeated a ghost by the name of Vigo the Carpathian at the Museum of Natural History.

_Man! I remember the whole night that happened_, Zack thought.

**One Year Ago…**

Zack and Cody were bundled up in warm winter clothes, standing right next to Maddie, their mother, London, and Mr. Moseby, all waiting to see how the Ghostbusters were going to take care of the problem that stood in front of them. It was supposed to be the Museum of Natural History standing there; but, instead, it was a shell of purplish slime that, according to Sean Spengler, was reacting to the city's negative energy.

Going on this theory, Cody and Maddie encouraged the crowd to come together in singing a couple of uplifting songs to break this "slime shell." Cody had them singing "Cumbaya" and only managed to open a hole the size of a skateboard in the slime. Maddie suggested they sing "We're All in This Together" from _High School Musical_, but the slime only opened to (ironically) the size of a basketball.

"Wonder how it'd respond if we did 'Bop to the Top'?" Maddie wondered out loud.

"Maybe we should get Zac and Vanessa here!" London excitedly suggested.

"What good would that do?" Cody said. "Not even the John Williams London Symphony could crack open this shell."

There was a long pause of silence to mirror the hopelessness of the situation and then London asked, "But we could still get Zac and Vanessa over here, right?" Everyone, of course, just gawked at her oddly.

Close nearby, Alexis Embers was observing the scene, finding it eerily similar in a way to the incident that occurred at the Tipton Hotel a few years back—the only difference being the temperatures. Before it was a moderately warm day; but then and there, she felt like she was freezing her butt off. _The things I'd go through just to see my heroes in action_, she thought.

Earlier, Alexis and the others watched the Ghostbusters make an attempt at breaking the "slime shell" with their particle throwers. Bolts of proton energy struck the hardened slime, but not once penetrated through it. There was a force at work here that the Ghostbusters greatly underestimated. And even as they were still away somewhere, searching for a solution to their dilemma, Alexis wondered what could possibly be done here. It was obvious by now that this wouldn't be as easy as the Tipton Hotel.

Then she heard something in the distance that sounded a lot like singing, followed by heavy thumping noises (that caused mild tremors under their feet). As soon as she looked behind her, she noticed a humungous green shape appear around the corner. It was being escorted by the NYPD, who cleared the roads and made sure citizens were held back on the sidewalk by barricades. Soon everyone else was noticing this enormous figure as the music got louder and closer.

They could barely believe their eyes when they realized that this shape was in fact _The Statue of Liberty_!

"Whoa! There's something you don't see every day!" Maddie exclaimed.

"I thought I saw something like that the other day," said London.

"Was it on television?"

"Yeah."

"Then you _haven't_ seen it every day, London!"

As the enormous statue stomped by them, Alexis could make out four figures inside the crown, seemingly operating the statue's movements from there. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that those figures were the Ghostbusters, using Lady Liberty as their secret weapon against the slime shell; but, as an extra boost of power, they had "When You Wish Upon A Star" playing over speakers set up inside the statue.

From what Alexis could tell, the song was being sung by more than one voice—male voices, to be exact; and it also sounded like it was being performed live from within the statue. Whatever the case might've been, it was definitely taking effect on the slime shell, as part of its top began to spread and reveal a skylight.

Kneeling beside the museum, the statue drew back its mighty right arm and smashed the skylight with its torch. This action was met with the thunderous cheer of the crowd of New Yorkers below. Cheering herself, Alexis watched with great excitement as the Ghostbusters each threw ropes out from the crown and slid down through the broken skylight.

_Whoever they're busting tonight had better be saying their prayers_, Alexis thought with a grin.

* * *

"Get away this moment, before you meet your impenetrable doom!" Jafar exclaimed, while he and Iago hid behind a larger-than-life, full-figure portrait of Vigo the Carpathian, a demented and sadistic sixteenth century despot with an incredibly powerful evil presence.

The Ghostbusters stood in a perfectly formed line, side-by-side to one another, aiming their Proton Guns and Slime Blowers (a new device, designed and worn by Sean and J.G., complete with a metal tank strapped to their backs and attached sprayers used to project streams of the psychomagnetheric "mood slime" they found below the city that was once negatively charged, but now positively charged). Their target was supposed to be Jafar, but were aiming at the painting instead.

"Get your ass out from behind there, Jaffie!" Kim demanded. "You've been a bad monkey!"

Jafar cringed at that remark. "Do I look like the type who wears a vest and ridiculously small hat?"

"Oh, nice comeback, Jafar!" Iago sarcastically said.

Diana rolled her eyes in despair. "This is so _not_ how I want to spend my New Year's. First, we got thrown into a mental institution, trying to convince the mayor of the impending danger this city's facing. And now we're dealing with a guy who belongs in one."

"Yeah," J.G. uttered, and then added enthusiastically, "Hasn't this been the _best_ night ever?!"

While Diana again rolled her eyes, Jafar and Iago peeked out from the left corner of the painting. As soon as she saw the white in their eyes, Kimberly opened fire and forced them to retreat back behind the portrait. The proton stream blew away a large chunk of the painting's side, leaving a charred hole there. Diana looked at the face of Vigo and could have sworn that the portrait cringed as soon after this attack occurred.

"You pitiful, miserable creatures!" Jafar yelled. "You dare to challenge the power of darkness? Don't you realize what you are dealing with?"

The Ghostbusters looked to one another and shrugged as they said, "No."

"Told ya they wouldn't get it." Iago whispered to Jafar.

"HE'S VIGO!" Jafar bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the entire museum. "He's the supreme sorcerer to conquer all sorcerers! I've learned much about dark magic from him! And tonight, after the clock strikes midnight, he will live again in this new century, taking the form of whomever he pleases! You four are like the buzzing of scarabs to him!"

The Ghostbusters weren't listening. Instead they began advancing towards the painting and Jafar, their weapons still aimed in their direction. However, the closer they got to the painting, the more it seemed like the man in it was popping out towards them in a very third-dimensional way.

It was evident to them that Vigo the Carpathian was _actually_ moving out of the picture and advancing on the Ghostbusters, even towering over them. Their eyes widened, mesmerized by the sudden supernatural event. "You've got to be kidding me!" J.G. cried.

Immediately, Kimberly and Diana opened fire on the specter. Unfortunately, their proton stream merely bounced off Vigo's chest, striking portions of the room instead. Jafar and Iago stepped out from behind the now-blank painting and grinned, watching their adversaries face their doom.

"This is it, Iago." Jafar said. "We'll finally succeed where Hades and his pathetic god, Gozer the Gozerian, failed."

The Ghostbusters continued backing away from Vigo, as he opened his mouth wide, a fierce light of fiery blue energy emerging from it. He was about to unleash his incredible power over the Ghostbusters, until the sudden sound of radiant singing interrupted his control, extinguishing the energy inside his mouth and causing him to wince in pain.

Looking upward towards the skylight, they all noticed three young men standing in the crown of the Statue of Liberty, singing "When You Wish Upon A Star" louder and more jubilantly than before. These three young men turned out to be a group that Jafar and Iago were heavily familiar with.

"The Jonas Brothers?!" Iago exclaimed. "We're bein' defeated by the Jonas Brothers?! Are you kidding me here?!"

With the distraction in full effect, Kimberly and Diana stepped forward and again unleashed powerful proton streams from their guns. The blasts connected with Vigo's body and sent him reeling back towards the painting. As he was being sucked back inside, he reached forward and snatched the first thing that could have been some use to him: Jafar.

"My Lord! Wh-What are you…?" Jafar cried.

Iago, seeing was what happening, decided to take advantage of the fact that he had flight capabilities and headed away from his boss. "You're on your own here, Jafar!" He landed nearby on the head of a statue and watched Jafar's demise with a hint of interest.

Spengler and Stantz couldn't have cared less what happened to Jafar. All they wanted was to defeat Vigo before the Jonas Brothers could have possibly lost their voices. Together, they fired their Slime Blowers and hosed both Vigo and Jafar. Vigo bellowed as he dropped Jafar, and then he fell back into the painting.

"Whoa! That got 'im!" Kim said.

They watched as the paint melted off the canvas and ran onto the floor, revealing another painting underneath it. The other painting, as it turned out, was a beautiful portrait of two princesses dressed similarly to Cinderella and Princess Aurora (a.k.a. "Sleeping Beauty") with two princes kneeling down beside them both and taking them by the hands with roses in the other, all while dressed like Prince Charming and Prince Phillip. The princesses bore an uncanny resemblance to Kimberly (as Cinderella) and Diana (as Aurora), and the princes looked just like Sean (as Charming) and J.G. (as Phillip).

"Wow." Kim uttered. "Now there's an image I won't get outta my head anytime soon."

Meanwhile, Iago flew back over to Jafar, who was lying on the floor, covered with slime and humming joyfully to himself with an unusual smile on his face. "Yo, Jafar! You okay? Not that it really matters, I mind ya."

Jafar chuckled with glee as he said, "I'm groovy, Iaggy-baby."

"Iaggy-baby?!" The parrot remarked with complete confusion.

"In fact, I've never felt better in my life!" Jafar happily exclaimed, as he got to his feet and picked Iago up, giving him an enormous hug. "I love you, little fella! You're the best friend I've ever had!"

Iago struggled out of Jafar's embrace and hovered in the air, his entire feathery form covered in slime. He had a disgusted look on his face upon saying, "I really hope they got therapy in prison, 'cause I'm seriously gonna need some after this."

With their mission completed, the Ghostbusters looked up towards the crown of Lady Liberty. Kimberly gave them a thumb up and said, "Nice work, boys. You really burnt up that ghost with that song."

Joe Jonas had a thoughtful look on his face, scratching his chin and staring off into space. "A song about burnin' up ghosts? You know, we could make an instant hit with that."

Nick and Kevin both gave him odd looks. "Are you kidding me? Who'd want to hear a song about burning up ghosts?" Nick inquired.

"Who'd want to hear a song about burning up _anything_?" Kevin stated. "That's just got 'wrong' written all over it."

Joe rolled his eyes with exasperation. "It was just an idea, guys."

"Well, yeah, and it was a horrible idea." Kevin retorted.

As the brothers started to bicker amongst each other in the head of the Statue of Liberty, the Ghostbusters just gawked at them for a long moment and then turned to each other. Then they looked behind them to see the love-crazed Jafar chasing Iago all around the museum, trailing slime everywhere.

"Oh, my goodness." Diana uttered.

Spengler took out his P.K.E. Meter and gazed at the readings for a while. He then told the others, "You know, that slime shell disappeared as soon as we stopped Vigo. We can leave at any time."

"Awesome idea." J.G. said.

"Yeah, I'm with ya'll on that one." Kim acknowledged before the team headed towards the exit and departed from the museum, greeted by the much more soothing sound of their cheering public. Once again, the Ghostbusters had saved the day…and the world.

As just like before, Alexis Embers was there to witness it all. Unfortunately, it would be the last time she and anyone else would.

**Present Day**

Zack was so lost in thought that he totally missed the fact that his brother had been calling his name repeatedly for the past several minutes. Only when he waved his hand out in front of him did he snap out of his flashback. "Wh…Huh?!"

"I believe I just set the record for the number of times I've said 'Zack' for sixty minutes straight." Cody sarcastically said. "You must've been thinking of something awfully good to miss what Mr. Moseby just did."

"What? Did he do cartwheels like that time he found out Mr. Tipton was giving him a raise?" Zack asked.

"No, he just called the only available ghost-hunting team in New York to substitute for the ones that quit last year." Cody said. "The original Ghostbusters: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy."

Zack cringed. "That was the best he could do? Those guys are like the great-grandfathers of ghost hunters."

"Well, it was the best _we_ can do. Ajax Ghost Exterminators have been in business for nearly seventy-one years now, and just came out of mid-retirement on their seventieth anniversary last year."

"And that's supposed to make us feel better how?"

At that moment, someone came through the revolving door at the hotel entrance and was spun around so quickly in it that he flew out and soared several feet, crashing into a nicely decorated table. It turned out that this clumsy figure was Goofy, one-third of Ajax Ghost Exterminators.

Cody and Zack immediately rushed to his aid. "Are you alright?" Cody asked with great concern.

"Relax, dude." Zack said. "It's just Goofy."

Goofy tipped his green hat to Zack and Cody and said, "Ajax Ghost Exterminators at your service!"

Cody could barely contain his joy at meeting the animated figure. "Oh, wow! This is a real honor, sir! I've never met a living legend before!"

"Sure you have." Zack contradicted. "Remember when you freaked out over—"

"Can we please not go there?!" Cody quickly interjected.

Soon Mickey and Donald entered the hotel, having quite the opposite expressions on their faces: Mickey's was more joyous, while Donald was somewhat fierce. "Anybody seen any ghosts?" Mickey asked with excitement, feeling glad to be back in action after so long.

Mr. Moseby approached the two characters and smiled as he told them, "Welcome! Welcome! We are so glad to have you here! It is always a pleasure to have the greatest American icons here at the Tipton."

"Just tell us where the ghost is." Donald gruffly said.

Despite the duck's crazy semi-intelligible speech, Moseby knew right away from the look on his face that this was all business with him, not pleasure. "They're on the rooftop."

"C'mon, fellas." Mickey told his teammates, as he held his shotgun ready. "We've got work to do."

The three ghost-hunters headed over to the nearest elevator and climbed inside. As the doors closed in front of them, Cody, Zack, and Moseby each gave them a thumb up. Just after the doors closed, Zack uttered, "They're gonna get annihilated, aren't they?"

"They don't even have a prayer." Moseby remarked.

Cody gawked at the both of them and shook his head in disgust. "O ye of little faith," he said.

"O ye who're about to get their butts kicked." Zack bantered, walking off and leaving a hopeful Cody feeling suddenly nervous. As a last minute decision, he rushed over to an elevator that had just opened and climbed in, heading to the rooftop himself.

**END OF CHAPTER TWO**


	3. Back In Black And Blue

**Chapter Three: Back in Black (And Blue)**

It was a scene almost eerily similar to the event that occurred on the rooftop of the Tipton in 2004. The only exception was that things were ten times more terrifying as blue smoke emerged from beyond the temple doors, which looked as if they had been blown open by dynamite. However, the temple was not there; instead, there was a long, dark stairway leading to a black throne where none other than Hades, Lord of the dead, was sitting and smoking a cigar.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy slowly emerged from the doorway leading onto the rooftop; their demeanors had changed almost instantly the moment they made it there. Their ghost-catching "equipment" was shaking in their grips as they crept across the smoking atmosphere. They fought hard not to breathe any of the smoke in, not knowing what kind of harmful effects it could have on them; Mickey breathed in a little and coughed hard. _It smells like brimstone_, he thought.

Hades, upon seeing the three "Wannabe Ghostbusters," laughed and said, "I ask for the Superstars of the Supernatural, and they give me just plain old superstars instead?"

"The jig's up, Hades!" Mickey exclaimed, doing his best to sound brave.

"Yeah!" Donald added, also trying.

"Leave the nice folks in this hotel alone!" Goofy demanded.

The calm, cool demeanor that had been on Hades' face quickly started to change into a heavily stressed, twisted look of sheer anger while the cigar in his mouth exploded; coincidentally, his attitude did as well. "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR ANY MICKEY MOUSE JUNK!"

His body flamed up and his furious voice echoed throughout the creepy night atmosphere, making the trio in front of him nearly jump out of their skins (literally, in a toon's case). Between the shivers, Goofy brought himself to say, "I guess ya don't have time for any Donald Duck junk either."

"Will you shut up?!" Donald retorted.

The flames on Hades' body began to recede, forcing him to stay calm again. "Okay. Okay. Look. All I want is for you boys to get me the Ghostbusters. That's all. And I'll leave your pretty little realm alone."

"B-But, Hades," said Mickey, "The Ghostbusters have split up."

"They're retired." Goofy added.

Hades chuckled. "I don't think you guys heard me. I want the Ghostbusters…NOW!" On that last word, his body flamed up again—this time in the reddish-orange color. "I don't care if they're retired or expired…actually, that second one doesn't sound so bad…but, anyways, I want them here right here, right now!"

"How're we supposed to find them?" Mickey asked.

"You're the sorcerer…FIGURE IT OUT!" Hades' flame grew to immense proportions, shooting out towards Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. The three fell back from the staircase and headed back to the doorway.

As soon as they safely made it away from the rooftop, they took a moment to catch their breath. "Did you get him?" asked a voice that scared the living daylights out of the three exterminators. They turned to see Cody Martin, the boy from downstairs in the lobby, standing in the hall leading to the elevator.

"No, we didn't get him!" Donald complained. "He wants the Ghostbusters! Not us!"

"The Ghostbusters?" Cody said. "But they're…"

"Retired," said the three exterminators. "We know!"

Cody was silent for quite a while, and then he curiously asked, "So…what are you guys going to do?"

"What else?" Mickey hopelessly inquired. "Give 'im what he wants."

Cody's eyes widened in shock and surprise. "But you can't do that! Hades is the Lord of the Underworld! He'll destroy us all!"

"Well, _we_ can't do anything. He's way too powerful for either of us." Mickey said.

"Gwarsh! If only we had those nifty machines that those Ghostbuster fellers carried around, we'd really be something!" Goofy remarked.

"Yeah!" Donald exclaimed. "_Then_ we'd show Hades!"

Mickey scratched his chin in curiosity and then snapped his fingers with a look of revelation on his face. "Fellas, that's it! We'll just use their equipment! I'm sure there's some left at their old headquarters."

"Of course there is!" Cody cheered. "Zack and I skateboard through there every now and then. It's barely boarded up, so there shouldn't be any problem getting in." Mickey, Donald, and Goofy looked at Cody curiously, making him feel a bit sheepish. "What? It isn't a crime, if there aren't any signs."

* * *

Luckily for Alexis Embers, there weren't any signs outside the barely boarded up firehouse that was once housed as the headquarters for the Ghostbusters; only sections of it were sealed, such as the windows and garage door. The door at the side of the closed garage entrance was left untouched and unlocked, and it was how Alexis was able to get in that day to check out the old place.

She anticipated on it being completely empty and even a little dusty, but it was not as cluttered as she expected it to be. It looked like the Ghostbusters decided to just walk out and not pack up their things at all. Not like they had much to pack away, considering how in 2006, the city began purchasing and endorsing all of their equipment—which meant they owned fifty percent of it. Everything in the abandoned firehouse, even the Ecto-1 (which was still parked in the garage, but not covered in a tarp or anything), was untouched for reasons that were strange to Alexis.

As she moved between the front desk that belonged to Christina Melnitz (with her nameplate still sitting on there) and the lockers that contained the Ghostbusters' gear, she wondered what it had to have been like the first day they set up shop there. It could not have been easy, considering in interviews, each team member described the first day being "sheer hell." But they must have overcome it, since they really picked up after the first bust at the Tipton Hotel, where they seemed to have gotten the most calls.

While pondering this, Alexis stopped in front of the locker owned by Dr. Kimberly Venkman; she opened it and looked inside to find a locker that seemed like a high school student's locker. On the door were pictures of muscular, speedo-wearing male models with David Tennant's face glued over theirs and advertisements for a hangout joint called "Hoots" with an owl as the logo. _Man! Dr. V was some woman_, Alexis thought.

And, apparently, another unexpected visitor shared the same notion. "She was _some_ woman, alright," she repeated Alexis's thoughts aloud. Alexis jumped as she heard the voice, turning in the direction of the doorway to see the 26-year-old Ghostbusters secretary, Christina Melnitz, standing there in a pair of blue jeans, a pair of sneakers, and a green sweater. "Sorry I scared ya, hon. Just didn't expect anybody to be here, after four years."

"Funny," said Alexis. "I was thinking the same thing."

Christina approached Alexis with a bright smile on her face, gazing over Kim Venkman's former locker. Getting a closer look at her, Alexis discovered she was a dirty blonde with blue eyes; she had a fresh, young face that would welcome any person off the street. It was how Alexis knew that she was indeed welcomed to the firehouse, even though it was restricted property.

"Kim was one of the craziest out of all us," said Christina. "Most the time she'd just sit on her butt and sleep."

Alexis chuckled. "She deserved it, busting so many ghosts all the time."

"J.G., Sean, and Diana did most of the busting...she was always lagging behind, grabbing some _McDonald's_ and whatnot."

Alexis smiled and attempted to reach inside of the locker; before she did, she turned to Christina and requested, "May I?" Melnitz nodded with a smile, and Alexis reached inside to pull out Kimberly's old gray jumpsuit, which still had her red and black nametag stitched on, displaying her last name. "Wow. It's almost like I'm holding a piece of history here."

"Can't be _too_ historical, considering the woman who wore it was a real…"

"Can I wear it?" Alexis suddenly asked, taking Christina by surprise a little.

She took a moment to think about her answer before giving it. "Uh, sure. No problem. There's a bathroom upstairs you can change in." Alexis smiled, and as she headed in that direction, Christina made sure to add, "Only a few minutes, okay? I'm _really_ not supposed to let anybody mess with the stuff, ya know. Heck, even _I'm_ not supposed to be here." Alexis was already upstairs by the time she mentioned that last part.

All alone in the garage area, Christina took a minute to soak in the memorabilia that surrounded her. So many memories in that one place, it was all a bit overwhelming to her. She smiled as she approached her old desk, which was cleared off (sans her nameplate and a red rotary phone). Blowing off some of the dust on it, she sat down at the chair and pretended to do her old job.

She picked up the receiver on the phone and placed it near her ear, careful not to get any dust in it or on her hair. "Ghostbusters, how you doin' today?" she playfully uttered with a chuckle. "Oh, really? You have a Viking skeleton terrorizing the local museum? Oh, my. That _is_ a big…"

The door suddenly flew open again, only a lot faster than how Alexis and Christina had. It scared Christina completely as she jumped in the seat, dropping the receiver and letting it dangle at the side of her desk. On instinct, she ducked under the desk and hid there, while the new visitors (presumably the local authorities, arriving on notice of their being "perpetrators" in the old firehouse) entered; she only hoped that Alexis would stay upstairs long enough to avoid them seeing her.

However, she wondered what kind of police officers were there, as she heard one that sounded like a little kid. "They still keep them in their lockers, when I last checked."

Then she heard another that sounded _exactly_ like Mickey Mouse. "You'd think they'd take better security measures, leaving the door open for just anybody to walk right in." It _was_ Mickey—there was no mistaking a voice as high as his; that was, unless someone's been sucking on too much helium.

Knowing it was just another group of "perpetrators" like her and Alexis, Christina decided to climb out from underneath the desk, feeling like a complete idiot for even going there. That was until Alexis suddenly came downstairs (shoot!), wearing Kim Venkman's jumpsuit with a big smile on her face. That smile, however, quickly faded once she reached the foot of the stairs and noticed Mickey and his friends there.

"Uh…hi." She said, which made Christina roll her eyes in exasperation.

_Rookie._

"Hi!" Mickey remarked. "You must be…" He looked closely at the name on the jumpsuit that didn't even belong to her, and an odd look appeared on the mouse's face. "Dr. Venkman?"

Alexis, realizing the mistake, shamefacedly gawked at the jumpsuit and smiled. "Oh, no. This isn't mine. It's just…"

"A-hyuck! I get it!" Goofy said. "You must be her next of kin."

_Say what?!_ Christina thought in bewilderment.

Alexis was quite baffled herself—so much so that she could barely find the words to explain herself in this odd situation. What made it even more baffling was the fact that she was the perfect fit in Kimberly Venkman's old jumpsuit. The only issue was the upper part of the sleeves felt a little stretched out (Kim must've worked out a lot), giving them a baggy appearance; not to mention the "butt area" felt baggy itself (that was self-explanatory).

Before Alexis could even find the right words to say, a sudden tremor came and shook everything inside the firehouse, dropping bits and clouds of dust and debris over them. They also heard loud stomping coming their way, followed by the muffled screaming of a passerby outside the firehouse.

"I definitely don't like the sound of that!" Cody exclaimed.

All of the sudden, the garage door and everything else surrounding it blew away, forcing everyone to take cover as chunks of concrete and metal flew everywhere. From underneath the desk, Christina could hear loud thumps over her head as the chunks slammed her desk and landed on her chair, breaking it to pieces. Christina was more grateful to be safe from danger than saddened by the loss of her old treasures. Once the chunks had passed, she stuck her head out from under the desk and looked past the left side to see what had caused the sudden destruction: **it was a humungous black three-headed dog, with red eyes and huge sharp teeth**. The sight of it was enough to force Christina back under the desk and stay there until it went away, which seemed downright impossible.

Meanwhile, Alexis came out from inside Kimberly Venkman's locker, which functioned as her hiding place. Mickey and his friends, using the other three lockers as hiding places as well, came out along with Alexis to see the massive, monstrous, and unnatural dog.

"What the heck is that?!" Cody cried.

"It's Cerberus! Hades' guard dog from the Underworld!" Mickey yelled.

Alexis could barely believe she was seeing this creature before her. "What is it doing here?!"

"Hades sent it to come after us!" Donald screamed in horror.

"Not us," said Cody. "The Ghostbusters!"

Realizing this, the five of them let out a terrifying shriek, as they ran away from Cerberus. The monster didn't let them get away any further as it leaped over them and crashed against the staircase, keeping them from going upstairs. With the hole that the monster made where the entrance used to be, they took their chance to escape through it. Again, Cerberus foiled their attempt, letting out a fierce and powerful roar that connected to the roof of the garage and the other levels of the firehouse, shattering them away to rain down enough debris to completely seal up the hole.

There was no escaping at this point, as Cerberus had the mortals exactly where he wanted them. The monster snarled at them, drooling and fumigating the area with his horrible breath. At that moment, staring down in the mouth of death, Alexis wished she never came to the firehouse. Maybe if she just stayed away, this monster would never have come, and these people cowering with her wouldn't be in danger. _This is the price one pays for having such an unhealthy obsession_, she thought.

"Wait a minute!" Mickey said, as he realized they were standing near the lockers. "We have the tools to take care of this mutt!"

Alexis realized how right Mickey was; there seemed to have been some hope after all here, and she didn't hesitate any longer to take advantage of it. She dashed over to the locker that belonged to Dr. Sean Spengler and opened it, reaching through articles of his former uniform to get to a Proton Pack. Before she could even find one, Christina popped out from under her desk and shouted, "You won't find it there!" Alexis and the others looked in her direction; Mickey and his friends were surprised to even see her there. Christina waved in her direction and commanded, "C'mon! Follow me!"

They rushed over to her, dodging Cerberus as he lunged each of his three heads at them, attempting to catch an arm or a leg with his teeth. Luckily, the monster was unsuccessful in its moves, as the group was already at Christina's side before any more attempts could've been made.

"Now what?!" Cody said in intense panic.

"Downstairs!" Christina exclaimed before leading them in that direction through a staircase that was a little close to her desk. Cerberus lunged again, but missed as the group disappeared into the basement.

The room was a sprawling, two-story, warehouse-like space with a red, cylindrical machine built into the concrete wall. Alexis and Cody recognized the machine—from their previous visits to the firehouse—as the Ghostbusters' "Containment System," developed by Dr. Spengler and Dr. Stantz as a large facility for storing captured ghosts, but they seriously doubted if Christina brought them there for a tour.

A large amount of dust suddenly showered over Alexis, covering her hair and shoulders. She and the others then heard extremely loud scratching noises, obviously caused by the creature upstairs. "Uh, Chris?" Alexis said. "I don't think this is the best place to hide."

Christina walked over to one part of the floor and stomped on it hard four times with her right foot before it suddenly busted apart. She reached through the squared, well-carved hole with both hands and pulled out a cardboard box. The intense strain on her face and the loud grunts she made nonetheless signified how terribly heavy the box was. Once she set it aside, she took a brief moment to catch her breath.

The others looked on with great curiosity, wondering what was inside it. "There's a reason this building isn't as secured as most abandoned places should be," said Christina, while unfolding the box. "Sean told me the day after we 'disbanded' that we would need this equipment again, in case there was a threat bigger than any the world has ever faced before. He had the mayor promise him that one part of the building wouldn't be too heavily boarded to ensure any possible entrance. Trespassers, like ourselves, could come in but would not find anything good enough to take with 'em. Not even these bad boys…" She reached into the open box and pulled out a Proton Pack that was still in pristine condition.

Alexis, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Cody all smiled with joy and relief upon seeing the box full of Proton Packs. Christina handed the one she was carrying to Alexis; she nearly dropped it under its immense weight but was able to maintain balance long enough to put it on her back. It felt just as heavy there as it did while in her hands. "Man! How'd they get around in these things?"

"Ask me again later." Christina remarked. "Just try to lure that thing out of the firehouse."

Alexis's eyes widened in shock. "By myself?!"

"You're the only one who's big enough to handle these things," said Christina. "I'm gonna need the boys to help me carry out the other part of my plan."

Alexis swallowed hard, knowing exactly what it was like to step into the boots of a _real_ Ghostbuster; she was extremely nervous and on the verge of wetting herself in Kimberly Venkman's jumpsuit. Of course, she maintained control over herself and reached inside to pull out that sense of confidence, remembering the moments she witnessed the Ghostbusters saving the world; finding inspiration from that, she reached behind her, detached the Proton Gun from the pack, and held it in front of her with a look of determination. Not saying a word, she headed back upstairs to the garage, seeing Cerberus continuing to dig his claws into the floor. Alexis did her best to stay as silent as she could, like a hunter going after a lion. Hiding behind Christina Melnitz's desk, she aimed the Proton Gun over it and, with her target dead in her sights, pressed the button that would unleash the proton stream.

Unfortunately, nothing came out.

As she fiddled with the machine, Christina and the others arrived at the scene, individually carrying ghost traps and trailing an incredibly long orange extension cord. Just as she spotted them, Alexis whispered to Christina, "It's not working."

"Flip the switch," responded Christina.

"Which one? There's like a billion of them on here."

"Try the one that's labeled 'on,' genius."

Alexis looked back down over the Proton Gun and spotted the one switch that indeed had the word "On" labeled beneath it. After rolling her eyes in annoyance, she flipped the switch, causing a loud humming noise to be emitted from the Proton Pack. This, however, caught the attention of Cerberus, as the monster stopped clawing at the floor and looked in the direction of the noise. Once he spotted his prey, he snarled again and roared at them.

"Don't think so, bitch!" Alexis yelled as she fired the proton stream from the gun directly at the center head of Cerberus. That particular head started whimpering, while the other two continued growling at Alexis. "Can't forget Larry and Moe!" She fired two separate steams at the other two heads, which resulted in Cerberus's entire body reeling back towards the blocked entrance.

Christina smiled as she realized how well the rookie was handling the situation. "You go, girl!" she exclaimed before refocusing her attention on her part of the plan. She turned to the boys and said, "Okay. Mick, you and Cody stay down here and connect the cable to the Containment Unit on my signal. Donald, Goofy, and I will head to the roof with the traps."

"But the stairs are gone!" Mickey pointed to the staircase remains nearby them. "How'll you get up there?"

She pointed to the pole behind them. "We're just gonna have to break the laws of gravity."

Goofy gawked at the pole, rubbing his chin. "Gwarsh. Shouldn't we get permission from that Newton fella…uh…Wayne?" The others just looked at him oddly, not bothering to waste any time on figuring his comment out. (After all, it's Goofy.)

Within seconds, Christina was climbing up the pole with Donald and Goofy, while Mickey and Cody stayed down near the base, waiting for Christina's signal. It was strain for the three to get up the pole at first; but, with a lot more effort put in, they were able to reach the second level of the firehouse. They were careful not to fall in the hole created by Cerberus's bark while heading into a portion of the second level that was still intact and contained a staircase leading to the third one.

By the time they reached the rooftop, Alexis was already successful in getting Cerberus near the massive pile of debris that blocked the entrance. Another blast from the Proton Gun sent directly at the monster's chest area was enough to make him collapse right onto that pile, breaking through the debris and reopening the gaping hole. Cerberus fell right into the empty street corner outside, roaring in great anguish and fury.

From the rooftop, Christina, Donald, and Goofy saw him rolling across the street, his roars echoing throughout the area. _Perfect timing_, Christina thought. She then commenced in throwing two ghost traps over the edge, dangling them fifteen feet down the side of the building and right near Cerberus's injured body. Donald and Goofy had done the same with the pairs of ghost traps they were carrying, totaling the eight traps dangling over Cerberus.

Down below, Alexis slowly walked outside and looked up to see what they were doing, and she smiled upon realization. She then gazed back over at Cerberus and noticed how he was getting back up again. With quick thinking, she fired yet another strong blast of proton energy from her gun, keeping him down long enough for Christina to execute her part of the plan.

Christina rushed back downstairs to the second level and shouted down towards the base of the pole. "Alright, boys! Plug 'em in!"

Following her cue, Mickey and Cody rushed back downstairs to the basement and plugged the extension cord that was connected to the traps into the Containment Unit, sending an incredible charge of electrical energy surging through the cord and feeding directly into the traps. All eight of the metal boxes automatically opened their split, hinged lids and collectively unleashed an intense light that engulfed Cerberus. The monster's form suddenly began to disintegrate, each and every piece of him sucked into eight different traps. As soon as all of him was inside, the traps automatically closed their lids before another surge of energy traveled through the cord and went into the Containment Unit.

Mickey and Cody watched the visible energy travel into the machine, and they spotted a green light attached to the containment system briefly activate, denoting a successful containment. "We got 'im!" Mickey cheered, exchanging a high-five with a thrilled Cody Martin.

Back upstairs, Alexis approached the pole, just as Christina slid down it safely. As soon as the two women came near each other, they smiled and shared a high-five. "Sweet thinkin'! Where did you learn all that?"

Christina seemed very bashful that moment as she blushed and said, "I learned it from Sean…I mean, Dr. Spengler." It was bluntly obvious to Alexis that Christina Melnitz and Sean Spengler must've had some sort of special relationship before the team split up. Whatever kind it was, it only mattered to her that it really helped save their lives on that very night.

Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Cody soon arrived, each of them filled with excitement. "Man! That was just as cool as riding ten thousand times on the _Tower of Terror_!" Cody shouted.

Alexis laughed. "You boys did marvelous," she said. "You're on your way to becoming some real ghost-busting heroes."

"And you're already there, hon." Christina told Alexis, who looked at her in surprise. "Don't tell me you didn't have the makings of a Ghostbuster back there."

Embers was about to make a protest until Mickey stepped in. "She's right! You could take on Hades single-handedly!"

"A-hyuck! And even make your Auntie Kimberly proud!" Goofy added, which made everyone turned to him again in an odd reaction.

Alexis shook her head and gave a flattered grin. "Wait, wait, people. I'm not who you think I am." She gazed at the Proton Gun that was still in her hand and chuckled. "I'm just an ordinary girl living her wildest fantasies here. I didn't mean to get caught up into any of this." She then motioned towards Christina and added, "Besides, it was the secretary here who thought up of everything."

"Yeah, but I don't know the first thing about nuclear accelerators." Christina remarked. "I just know all the tricks they taught me to busting ghosts."

"Well, somebody's got to stop Hades." Mickey said. "If not, he'll wreak havoc all over the city."

Alexis suddenly reminded herself of something that was said earlier during the Cerberus attack. "Didn't you guys say something about Hades wanting the Ghostbusters? The _real_ Ghostbusters?" They nodded in response. "Then let's just go find them. Bring them back together, so we can take care of that 'hot-head' together."

"Are you kiddin' me?!" Christina exclaimed. "With the egos and different lines of work those four have now, it'd be a miracle to get them to work together again."

"Well, we have to try, Chris." Alexis said. "I mean, how hard would it be to convince four of the greatest heroes in New York to prevent another end-of-the-world threat?"

Christina looked past Alexis and at the parked Ecto-1, which had been heavily crushed as result of the Cerberus attack. Several large chunks of concrete had turned the vehicle into a pancake, rendering it totally useless. "I'd say it'd be as hard as repairing the damages to our old car."

Alexis, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Cody glanced over the crushed Ecto-1 and sighed in disappointment. Cody was on the verge of tears as he said, "She never even got the chance to wail her last siren." Goofy placed a hand over the boy's shoulder, taking off his green hat and placing it over his chest, as if he were mourning a living thing.

"Hey, c'mon!" Alexis said. "This car can be replaced...but we _need_ the _original_ Ghostbusters back…before it's too late."

**END OF CHAPTER THREE**


	4. Doctor Stantz, I Presume

**Chapter Four: Dr. Stantz, I Presume**

A medium-sized, glowing orb floated before Hades, depicting an image of Alexis Embers, Christina Melnitz, Cody Martin, and the Ajax Ghost Exterminators leaving the ravaged Ghostbusters HQ in a taxicab. His flames grew reddish-orange and intense in response to his increasing rage over the failure of his "fool-proof" plan. He was on the verge of exploding again until Pain, Panic, and the Fates (Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos) appeared behind him. The short and stout Fate with the purple skin and a single eye socket and known as Atropos said, "We _can_ show you the future, if it'll give you peace."

"_Nothing_ can give me peace right now!" Hades yelled, his booming voice forcing Pain and Panic to cower behind the Fates. "Seriously, I had a better time trying to eliminate 'Jerkules' than these lame mortals!"

The tallest of the three Fates with blue skin and a long nose and known as Lachesis remarked, "But they can be stopped, Hades...just like all mortals who dare challenge the higher powers."

Hades' flames settled down a little, as he started to realize how right the Fates were. "Okay, okay. You're right. You're absolutely right," he said. "I mean, look at the scenario: they've got nuclear accelerators and we've got the cosmos on our side. It's like a no-win situation for them."

"That is, until they get the team back together…then it's, uh, game over." Panic mentioned, which resulted in Hades' fury returning, the flames on his body getting brighter and more intense. Seeing this, Panic began to do what he did best. "Oh, no!"

Luckily for him, Pain was there to set things right again. "But they're miles apart from each other now. Those geeks won't get them back in time for your 'great plan,' Your Evilness."

"Right, right, right." Hades repeated over again, calming down again.

"But, then again, last time I checked the 'Manhattan Phone Book,' all their names are still listed." Pain added. "So, I guess they're, like…still living in the same city."

And Hades' fury returned soon afterwards, much more intense than before, causing the entire rooftop of the Tipton Hotel to quake. The Fates, already knowing what was about to happen (of course), disappeared from the scene. Pain and Panic, realizing how the Fates' disappearance left them exposed to the furious Hades, began to scream in horror; but the screams were soon drained out, just as Hades exploded, emitting a humungous cloud of fire and smoke from all sides of the rooftop area.

As soon as the smoke had cleared, every inch of the rooftop was covered in ash, along with Pain and Panic, who were stuck to the wall of the Temple. Hades remained in the center of it all, panting like crazy. It wasn't very long before the Fates reappeared, the only ones other than Hades that were unscathed from the whole thing.

"As we were saying," said Clotho—the green-skinned Fate with a large chin and wormlike hair, "the future for these pathetic mortals will be anything but victorious. Whether they reunite the Ghostbusters or not, you shall _still_ rule the living world, Lord Hades."

Hades wanted to be thrilled by this revelation; but something kept him from feeling that way. "The last time you told me that, I ended up being sucker-punched into the River Styx!"

"And if it were not for me, you would still be swimming with all those _poor unfortunate souls_," said an unknown voice that came from the edge of the rooftop.

"Wha…Who?" Hades moved to the rooftop's edge and glanced over it. A long, black tentacle suddenly shot up in front of his face, startling him; then another and another and another came, and before the Lord of the Underworld knew it, he was witnessing the bizarre arrival of Ursula the "Sea Witch." A supernatural creature of the cecaelia race, Ursula was head, arms, and torso combined with tentacles.

The obese, purple-skinned, and white-haired Sea Witch spoke in a deep, flamboyant tone to Hades. "I thought I'd be stuck in limbo forever, after that little mermaid's human lover-boy stuck a sunken ship through me."

"Well, I guess we all can't have more G-rated endings, now can we?" Hades sarcastically remarked.

"The point is I rescued you from a fate that no god should ever experience." Ursula said. "And the way I see it, you owe me…big time."

Hades chuckled, not so intimidated by the sea witch's presence. "What kind of thing do _you_ deserve? Other than a better direct-to-video sequel?"

"A chance at controlling the seven seas!" Ursula quickly responded. "If you're getting revenge on the Ghostbusters, then I want in."

"That's just the thing, sweetheart," said Hades. "It's all about revenge. This isn't just another Saturday Morning Cartoon scheme. We're talking about _beyond_ world takeover here. I'm gonna unleash a hell that no one has ever seen before."

Ursula grinned. "And how exactly do you intend on doing that, Hades? Since when do you have the powers of Zeus?"

Hades was about to retort, but then realized that he did not quite have a good answer to Ursula's question. He had pretty much been making things up as he went along. The whole ordeal with Cerberus was just his way of going for broke; not even the Fates had anything to do with that.

_Wait! The Fates! They can bail me out of this!_

"My trustworthy overseers have assured me of a powerful victory," he said, approaching the Fates and putting his arms around them. "Isn't that right, my gorgeous, lovely friends?"

The Fates were highly flattered by his words, each flashing a disgusting, toothless smile that nearly made Ursula sick. "Lord Hades will be supreme ruler of the living realm called Earth," said Atropos. "All of these mortals shall be his minions to control…"

"…to corrupt…" Lachesis added.

"…to abuse…" Clotho also added.

"…for all eternity!" The three Fates exclaimed.

"YES! BRING ON THE _REAL_ HAPPILY EVER AFTER, BABY!" Hades cheered.

Ursula mockingly applauded. "Bravo, Hades. But there's still the matter of all the other goody-two-shoes out there, like your brother, Zeus. You think he'll sit by and let you take over this precious realm?"

"You think you could do any better?" Hades asked, and Ursula grinned at him in reply. "Okay, Sea Witch. Show me whatcha got."

"With pleasure!" She remarked, before slithering back towards the edge of the rooftop and going over it, disappearing before Hades' eyes.

The Lord of the Underworld scoffed at the sea witch, mimicking her departing words in a high-pitched tone. "_With pleasure!_" He then grumbled, returning to his throne.

"Hades," Clotho said, "There is one more thing we forgot to mention."

"No, no! Let's just leave it with me kicking the Ghostbusters' butts and watching them kick Ursula's." Hades remarked. "I'm in too much of a good mood now to let any technicalities affect me of following my destiny."

The Fates shrugged their shoulders and folded their arms. "Suit yourself," said Lachesis, before sniffing the spider living in her nose back up, after it tried to make an escape.

* * *

Alexis, Christina, Cody, and the Ajax Exterminators held on for dear life as the taxicab driver, an unusual Muppet who went by the name of Beauregard (who had driven for many famous celebrities—namely Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy), made a hard left turn into a section of Manhattan known as "Waverly Place." He came to a hard and abrupt halt as soon as they arrived in front of a bookstore called "Jay's Occult," with a neon sign that had an old-fashioned ghost "floating" over the store name.

Goofy was thrown from the backseat of the cab and smacked against the windshield while Beauregard put on the brake and turned to his customers. "That'll be fifty dollars, folks."

"Forget that!" Christina angrily yelled. "You nearly almost killed us, you maniac!"

"Hey, gimme a break, lady." Beau remarked. "This is my first time driving after classes."

Christina grumbled at Beau, before storming out of the vehicle with Alexis and the others. Mickey and Donald had to literally peel Goofy off the windshield and carry both him and the box full of Proton Packs out of the cab, before Beauregard drove off to pick up another unlucky customer. As soon as the "crazy taxi" was away, Alexis gazed up at the entrance to the bookstore, which—in accordance to Christina Melnitz—was owned by the "Heart of the Ghostbusters," J.G. Stantz.

"I would've thought Dr. Stantz would continue his work in parapsychology rather than own his own bookstore." She said. "Wonder what inspired him?"

"All that time spent alone in his room back at the headquarters, readin' books on ghouls, goblins, spooks, and even _wizards_, turned Jay into a practical bookworm. So it was no surprise his first job, outside of Ghostbusters, would be a bookstore owner." Christina said. "His favorite book to date is _Tobin's Spirit Guide_."

Mickey smiled confidently. "C'mon, let's go in and meet him. I'm sure he'll be really happy to see us." The mouse, carrying the heavy box of Proton Packs, was about to enter until Christina stopped him.

"Best leave those out here for a while, Mick." She instructed him. "We don't wanna cause too much of a ruckus in there with all that equipment sitting around." Mickey nodded in agreement and set the box near the entrance of the bookstore.

The group entered the shop just as a deal was being made between a 16-year-old Hispanic American girl wearing a nametag with "Alex" printed on it and a beautiful, pony-tailed brunette wearing a blue jumper, a V-neck/collared long-sleeve blouse, and a white blouse with black flat-soled shoes. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Cody instantly recognized the brunette. "He-Hey! It's Belle!" Mickey exclaimed with a smile.

"Oh, my goodness! I've always wanted to meet her!" Cody said with much giddiness, which caused awkward stares from the others. Seeing them, he quickly switched to a somewhat manlier tone. "I mean…that's pretty tight, bro."

At the front desk, Alex was handing a book titled "The Real Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to Belle, who was more than delighted to get it. "I know you'll enjoy this one, Belle. I've read it five times already, and it's a _whole_ lot better than the movie."

"I can't wait to get back home and read it." Belle said. "Thank you so much, Alex. You and Dr. Stantz have never failed to get just what I'm looking for."

"What can I say? Dr. S is the man when it comes to books." Alex said with a smile as Belle waved goodbye and headed out of the store, passing by Alexis and the others. After she was out the door, Alex directed her attention to the other customers. "Can I help you guys?" That was when she noticed the tattered Ghostbusters jumpsuit that Alexis was wearing, spotting the labeled name of "Venkman" on it. "Oh, man! Are you…? No, it can't be! I mean…Oh, dude!" It was obvious from the wide-eyed look she gave Alexis that Alex was filled with excitement, but the reasons were oblivious to Embers and the others.

Before they could ask what was up with her, Alex was already away from the front desk, heading into the back of the store. "What on earth was that all about?" Donald inquired, and the others shrugged their shoulders in response.

While waiting for Alex to return, Goofy turned to one of the many shelves in the store and plucked out an old book from it; he curiously gazed at the front cover and chuckled. "A-hyuck! Hey, listen to this funny title." He then read the title out loud, "The Nick-Ron-Emocion." Goofy pondered over that title for a while. "Hmm…Must be Spanish. A-hyuck! I've always wanted to learn that language!"

Mickey watched as Goofy opened the book, having its cover face his direction. As soon as Mickey glanced at it, he realized that Goofy had totally mispronounced its title. The book was not called "The Nick-Ron-Emocion" - it was "The Necronomicon" (a.k.a. "The Book of the Dead"). If Mickey's history lessons served him well, whomever opened such a book would unleash unearthly horrors...and, unfortunately, Goofy just did.

"Goofy! NO! CLOSE THAT BOOK!"

But it was too late; out of nowhere, a huge, hairy green hand reached out from the book and lunged at Goofy, causing him to drop it and reel back, screaming. He collapsed onto the same bookshelf that he plucked the book from and tilted it over, crashing into others that also collapsed. It created a loud noise that brought Alex back out from the rear of the store, along with the storeowner, J.G. Stantz.

"What the hell happened in…?" J.G. began, and then he spotted the opened Necronomicon on the floor with the green hairy hand still out and clawing on the floor, trying to attack anything that stood close to it; but everyone was standing as far away from it as possible. J.G. stared at the book in shock, turning to Alex and asking, "Where did that one come from?"

"It arrived just last week," answered Alex. "Some guy with a freaky, out-of-date goatee came by with a whole box of them."

J.G. turned to her and looked as white as a sheet. "A WHOLE BOX?"

All of the sudden, other copies of the Necronomicon emerged from the massive piles of boxes that fell from the collapsed shelves, each with different hairy green body parts: one had a head (complete with red eyes, yellow teeth, and nose with a large wart), another had a huge, barefooted leg, and two others had another leg and arm. The five copies of the Necronomicon then floated in midair and grouped together, emitting a haze of ghostly energy that generated the form of an eight-foot monster. Its head, sticking out from the Necronomicon that floated at the very top, roared at the frightened figures standing in the room. Its hands, sticking out from copies that floated at opposite sides of the ghostly haze, balled into fists. And its feet, sticking out from the copies that floated near the floor, began stomping forward.

Soon afterwards, more other copies of the Necronomicon grouped together and created six similar monsters, each stomping towards the mortals. Watching this supernatural occurrence take place, Alex shook her head and uttered, "This was _so_ not in my job description!"

Meanwhile, Alexis rushed out of the store, doing her best not to be seen by the Necronomicon monsters. Alexis was so stealthy that Christina or the others didn't notice her leave either; they were much more busy running away from the monsters, dodging every swipe and stomp that came their way. There were two ways out of the room: through the front entrance where Alexis exited a moment ago and upstairs to the second level of the two-story building. Unfortunately, the front entrance was blocked by the monsters, which left upstairs the only option. As the group moved in that direction, Alex reached into her rainbow-colored sock, trying to pull out something that she believed would be a good defense against these monsters; but she did not have the time to get it out before one of them tried to take another swipe at her. "Oh, man! Oh, man! Oh, man!" She yelled repeatedly.

The group finally arrived at the upstairs area, which functioned as sort of like a reading area, complete with an antique wooden table and chairs, a few beanbag chairs at the corners of the room, a blue-carpeted floor, and two bookshelves that stood against opposite walls. There was also a large window at the end of the room with the neon sign outside blocking the view of the street corner, as well as any possible escape.

"Whose idea was it to go upstairs?" Donald exclaimed.

"I was just followin' Jay," said Christina.

"And I was following Goofy," said J.G.

"Who were you following, Goofy?" Mickey asked.

"Uh…the narrator?"

There was a monstrous roar that shook the walls of the second floor as the seven Necronomicon monsters piled into the room. Alex had taken the opportunity to pull out the object of her desire—a magical wand—from her sock and aimed it at the monsters, which suddenly stopped. "Yeah! That's right! You're messin' with a wizard now!"

The others, with the exception of J.G., were taken aback by this sudden revelation. It was even Christina who turned to J.G. and said, "She's a wizard?"

"Long story," he remarked. "Hopefully I'll get to tell it."

One Necronomicon monster took a step forward and began towering over Alex, who became more than afraid. "S-Step back, dude! Y-You don't wanna mess with my teleportation spell! I can send you to Mars or Dagobah or…something like that."

Before she could even flinch, the Necronomicon monster snatched the wand from her hand, which then caused her to reel back in shock and surprise. It stared at it for a long moment, waving it around and causing many things to happen, like raining cheeseburgers outside and turning the room into many different colors. At first the monster took pleasure in the object; but then it suddenly emitted a volt of electricity that shocked its nose; this, of course, angered it to the point that it crumbled the wand into dust.

Watching this made Alex feel beyond depressed. "Dad is going to ground me 'til I'm old enough to wear funky wigs for that."

Even more furious than ever, the Necronomicon monsters roared and stomped their way towards the mortals. The lead monster—the one who destroyed Alex's wand—was about to swipe at the teenage wizard until something unexpected happened to one of its companions. One monster exploded, scattering slime and paper shreds everywhere.

"What was that?" Cody yelled in surprise.

They all turned to where the monster once stood to see Alexis standing near the staircase with a Proton Pack strapped to her back and the smoking Proton Gun aimed at the monsters. She had a look of pure confidence and determination on her face—the same look she had after defeating Cerberus. Her voice even sounded tough upon saying, "Try this wand on for size!" And with that, she unleashed another blast of proton energy that led to the sudden destruction of another Necronomicon monster.

However, the five remaining ones refused to flee from the attacking mortal; instead, they charged after her, forcing Alexis to fall back and head downstairs to the first floor. The others watched them as they descended, wondering how they could help her. J.G. moved to the window and squinted past the neon sign to see the box full of Proton Packs sitting on the sidewalk, near the entrance. Realizing there was only one way to help this friend of Christina's, J.G. grabbed one of the wooden chairs sitting around the antique table and hurled it through the window; it not only destroyed the window, but also part of the neon sign, leaving a gap wide enough for J.G. crawl through. His best shot was falling to the awning above the front entrance, which would cushion his fall and prevent him from suffering any serious injuries.

Stantz's sudden action surprised the rest of the group, who all gazed at him with confusion. Turning in their direction, he said, "All of you stay here. I'm gonna help her." After this, he crawled through the busted window and leaped into the air, falling and landing onto the gray awning. He bounced a couple of times before throwing himself off of it and landing on the sidewalk. As quickly as possible, he dashed over to the box and grabbed the first Proton Pack he saw.

Strapping it to his back, a sudden sense of nostalgia rushed through him as those "good ol' days" of ghost-busting came back; he had almost forgotten how unbelievably heavy the thing was, nearly causing his knees to buckle under its intense weight. _It's been far too long_, he thought as he detached the Proton Gun from the pack and held it firmly in his hands. He switched on the gun, knowing exactly which switch to flip, and it hummed and vibrated immensely. _Oh, how I missed this part of the job!_

Before he completely forgot why he put the damned thing back on again, J.G. ran back inside his ravaged bookstore and found a slightly panicked Alexis firing at the monsters and badly missing. _This rookie doesn't know a thing about "Proton Settings."_ He flipped a few switches and turned some knobs on his Proton Gun, which caused it to hum louder than ever. Aiming straight at the monsters, Stantz fired a proton stream that had incinerated half of the room, taking out a few Necronomicon monsters in the process.

Alexis briefly looked toward him, wide-eyed in disbelief. "Which setting was that?"

"The Kick-Ass Setting!" J.G. exclaimed, right before he fired another intense stream that had taken out the final two monsters.

Alexis breathed in relief, lowering her Proton Gun to relieve tension. She turned to J.G. and happily said, "Thank you, Dr. Stantz."

"It isn't over yet, rookie." Jay cautiously said, nodding in the direction of where the monsters once stood. Alexis directed her attention there once again and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw how all that ghostly energy the books were giving off had risen from their ashy remains and formed together in midair to create an large ectoplasm that quickly manifested into an entity with similar physical characteristics to the monsters...and it was increasing in size.

"It's coming back!" She screamed.

"They're _all_ coming back!" J.G. said with a smile that would've come across as highly disturbing had Alexis seen it. Stantz reached behind him and detached a ghost trap from his Proton Pack; after that, he threw it across the floor, letting it stop right below the forming entity. "Give me a concentrated stream to contain this sucker long enough to open the trap. GO!"

Alexis fired her gun and contained the growing entity in the stream; this was the part of using the Proton Pack that she hadn't really gotten the jest of yet and, from the way she was handling it that moment, had to be the hardest thing about it. She felt herself being pulled toward the entity, her feet sliding across the hardwood floor. Gritting her teeth, she pulled the stream in the opposite direction, engaging herself in a game of "Tug-of-War" with the supernatural creature. The strain was quickly beginning to take a toll on her, and she made that clear to J.G. as she screamed, "Whatever you're doing, do it now!"

"Don't look at the trap!" J.G. yelled, and she turned her head away while he stomped on the pedal switch that remote-controlled the trap, via a long cord attached to it; instantly, it opened up and sucked the growing entity directly into it, closing right afterwards.

Alexis turned and looked at the trap, seeing the foul-smelling smoke that was beginning to rise from it and the small green light blinking on the side to indicate another successful containment; she then looked at J.G., who was still smiling, as he picked up the smoking ghost trap and dangled it near his head. It was apparent that the smell didn't affect him whatsoever; then again, he had been used to it by then.

"I love the smell of busting in the morning…or evening…whichever the case." J.G. commented, and Alexis chuckled.

There were rapid footsteps heard from behind them, and they turned to see their friends coming down the stairs, all looking very pleased. Alex was most excited out of them all, coming right up to Alexis and saying, "That was so awesome! You're always gonna be my favorite G.B., Dr. Venkman." She then faced J.G. and added, "No offense, Dr. S."

Alexis chuckled, just starting to realize why Alex went so crazy when she first saw her. "No, no, sweetie. I'm not Kimberly Venkman."

"You're not?" Alex said with great confusion.

Goofy then approached her and said, "She's her niece."

"Really?" Alex remarked, looking up and down at Alexis. "You're a little young to be, aren't ya?"

J.G. noted the jumpsuit Alexis was wearing, which undoubtedly belonged to his old friend and fellow Ghostbuster; this girl didn't quite fill it in all that much, however. The sleeves looked really baggy, hence the reason they were slightly rolled up to her elbows, and the "butt area" was just as much so. Stantz didn't bother asking why she was wearing it, but it made him feel glad to see someone actually doing so again—even if it wasn't Kim.

He laughed and said, "This rookie has no relation with Kimberly Venkman." Turning serious again, he directed his attention to Christina. "So what's really going on here, Christina? I haven't had this much action since Vigo and Jafar."

"You tell me, Jay." Christina said. "Some dude with a freaky goatee comes to your shop and ships a box full of Necronomicon copies? Not what you'd expect to have every day." She then stopped and realized. "Wait a minute! Freaky goatee?"

J.G. then realized it himself. "Jafar! He's back and looking for payback over what we did last year!"

"He isn't the only one." Mickey added.

"Who else is…" Before J.G. could finish that question, the bell hanging above the entrance door dinged, signaling the arrival of another customer. For a second, J.G. was worried that the enormous mess surrounding the inside of the shop would drive away a possible well-paying customer; but he was relieved once he realized it was only his girlfriend of seven months, Vanessa.

Vanessa was only a few years younger than J.G. with dark brown hair and eyes to match; at the moment, she wore a long, dark blue evening gown and black heels. In the midst of the chaotic scene, she was the only thing that stood out as positively stunning to J.G. As soon as she looked around and saw the mess, Vanessa focused on J.G. and looked very worried. "Honey," she said with such a wonderful voice, "What happened here?"

Seeing her stand there reminded Stantz that he was supposed to take her out that night. There she was, looking like something straight out of a fairy tale, while he had a nuclear accelerator strapped to his back. Quickly, he took it off, a weight literally lifted off his shoulders, and handed it to Alex, who nearly collapsed from the heaviness. "Take care of this for me, will ya?" he whispered to her.

"Jay, who is this?" Christina asked him.

"She's my girlfriend, Vanessa. And I'm supposed to take her out to a lovely dinner tonight." J.G. replied as he straightened the sleeves of his black cotton-twilled shirt, dusted off his black dress pants, and checked to see if there was minimal ash residue on his shoes; thankfully, there wasn't any. "Look, whatever you amigos came here for, it'll have to wait another time."

"But, Dr. Stantz," Alexis stepped in, "There's something big that's about to go down, and we…"

"Jay, sweetie!" Vanessa called, interjecting herself into the conversation. "We don't want to be _too_ late. Our reservations won't hold for very long at Gusteau's."

"Be right there, Vanessa." J.G. said, and he returned his attention to the others. "This is my only shot at happiness here, amigos. You think I'm going to pass on a beautiful diosa like her out of my sights."

Christina and the others rolled their eyes at J.G., seeing how much he seemed to have changed since the team disbanded; he wasn't the eccentric loner that he once seemed to be; now he had a woman in his life, someone who could probably be a great commodity. However, she didn't quite seem that way to Alexis, Christina, Alex, Cody, or even Mickey and Donald; Goofy, on the other hand, was just trying to figure out what "diosa" meant.

"Go ahead and close up for the night, Alex." J.G. said as he looked around at the huge mess. "We'll…clean up first thing in the morning." After that, he and Vanessa walked out of the shop, arm-in-arm, both smiling.

Alex stood with the others in disbelief over what they had just seen. "Oh, there'd better be a raise somewhere in this," she said with crossed arms.

**END OF CHAPTER FOUR**


	5. Doctor Spengler, I Presume

**Chapter Five: Dr. Spengler, I Presume**

The subway station was a lot more crowded the following morning than it was in the previous evening, just after Christina, Alexis, Cody, Alex, and the Ajax Exterminators departed from the ravaged bookstore. They were still distraught and even confused over J.G.'s sudden actions last night as his "date" arrived; it even caught Alex by surprise, working with "Dr. S" for so long.

"He never told me anything about having a girlfriend," she said as she waited with her new friends for the subway train to arrive. "I've never seen him go out with her until tonight."

Meanwhile, Christina was in the process of trying to reach J.G. through her cell phone; but she still got the same voicemail message, telling to leave a message and how he'll get right back as soon as he can. "That's the fifteenth time I've tried to call him…and I've already left ten messages."

"He must really be in love with this girl." Cody assessed.

Alexis shook her head negatively. "What good is love when the world's coming close to its end?"

"Don't worry, Miss Embers." Mickey said. "We're not done for yet."

"That's right, Miss Embers." Goofy added. "We've still got three more Ghostbusters to look for, including your Aunt Kim."

Alexis rubbed her eyes in frustration over this apparent running joke; but it was not just him; it was the thought of what would happen if they did not succeed in their mission. Hades could take over everything in the blink of an eye; and where would they be when it happened? Either dead or left alive as slaves were her two best guesses for the worst case scenario. Suddenly, she was snapped out of her moment of thought when the overhead intercom made an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, the ten o'clock train from Waverly Place to Morningside Heights will currently be delayed, due to a blockage in the tunnel. We assured you that the situation will be handled as quickly as possible, but please bear with us."

Alex frowned. "Blockage in the tunnel? What is it? A huge pile of…?"

"Shit." Christina moaned in frustration. "We've got to get to Columbia U. before noon. Sean's classes end after then."

"Are you absolutely certain that Dr. Spengler will be easy to convince?" Alexis asked, as they made their way out of the station.

Christina smiled. "When it comes to that brainy hunk, I'm definitely certain."

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me with this!" The foreman bellowed as he stood with several other maintenance crewmen in the pitch-black subway tunnel, their flashlights shined straight ahead.

Wide-eyed and baffled, they stared at the massive red steel set of double doors with the grotesque, bronzed face of a goblin imprinted on the center of it. It came as quite a frightening display to the subway maintenance crew, who hoped that it could've been at least a brick wall that wasn't torn down before operations began or even equipment left over from recent construction; but definitely not something like this.

One puzzled worker asked, "So whaddya think we should do with it?"

"Beats the hell outta me," said the foreman. "I've been in construction and maintenance for thirty years and never seen anything like this." He approached the surrealistic door and gave it a knock. A creepy, hallowed version of the knock echoed throughout its massive structure. The foreman placed his ear against it but quickly bounced back, as soon as he realized how incredibly cold it was.

"There's a lotta people who need this tunnel available by this afternoon, boss." Another worker clarified. "Maybe we should just blow it open."

"I'm afraid if we did, we might bother what's on the other side." The foreman said, and then he quickly began to have second thoughts. "Ah, it's probably just some old, forgotten relic…or some moron's idea of a practical joke." He turned to the workers and gave an order. "Get Nicky over here with the dynamite - Pronto!"

Within minutes, the hardhat worker named Nicky placed seventeen different explosives around the massive door. Just as soon after he placed the last one at the foot of the center, an ominously dark voice spoke to him in a whisper. "Do not interfere, mortal." He looked behind him at the maintenance crew, who stood far enough to make it impossible to even hear what any of them were saying.

"You fellas say something?" Nicky asked.

"Yeah," said the foreman. "We said, 'Get that dynamite set up and get your ass back here - Pronto!'"

Nicky chuckled, directing his attention back to the last explosive he was setting up; but, then again, he heard the chilling voice whisper to him, "Leave now, mortal. You do not know the horrors that lie behind here." He looked upward, seeing the face of the goblin, and he wondered for a moment if it had just spoken to him. Was it possible? Or was he just spooked because of the dark atmosphere that was barely lit by the flashlights the foreman and the crew were carrying?

Either way, Nicky was getting away from the door; his job was finished, and it was time to regroup with the others. The worker dashed back over to the group, standing right behind them all and holding a medium-sized detonator in his hands. "Youse guys cover yer ears. This is gonna make a huge pop," he instructed.

The team did as Nicky said, and Nicky himself stuffed earplugs in to protect his own hearing; he then pressed the button that set off the explosion, creating a tremor small enough to avoid causing any disturbance above the street. It was a sure bet that some pedestrians and passing vehicles probably felt it and wondered if there was an earthquake in Manhattan.

The tunnel quickly filled up with smoke and debris, causing the crewmembers to cough uncontrollably. They shined their flashlights through the smoke, attempting to see if their attempt had worked; but they were unable to make out anything right away. Stepping through it all, they started to see chunks of broken metal lying in certain areas; even Nicky spotted pieces of the bronze goblin insignia in one place. The foreman was quick to express his delight as he gazed upon the debris. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Let's clear out this shit and get that train through here. Pron…"

Before the foreman could even finish saying that word again, he suddenly felt something grab him by the ankle and pull him down; he was then yanked across the ground, screaming while being hauled into the pathway of the tunnel that was once blocked by the strange door. The other workers watched in horror as he vanished into the smoke, crying out his name several times before the screaming suddenly stopped.

Then there came a loud, inhuman roar that echoed throughout the tunnel, scaring the life out of the workers. A pair of glowing red eyes emerged through the smoke from the direction that the foreman disappeared in. Seeing the eerie eyes made the workers run in the opposite direction. Nicky was the only one who hadn't run, keeping his gaze focused straight ahead. There was an expression on his face that was blank and emotionless as he started to walk towards the pair of glowing red eyes that seemed to be directed solely on him.

* * *

Columbia University was busier than usual that afternoon with several students rushing between department buildings, trying to get to class; Alexis, Christina, Alex, Cody, and the Ajax Exterminators walked amongst them. Alex and Cody felt a little taken aback by the busy scene, both of them getting a preview of the future to come; it was horrifying to Alex, while absolutely thrilling to Cody.

Goofy, in the meantime, was feeling a sense of nostalgia. "Being here sorta takes me back to _my_ old college," he said.

"You went to college, Goofy?" Donald inquired, seeming almost surprised.

"Sure did!" Goofy proudly remarked. "Got my degree in Chemistry."

"C-Chemistry?" Mickey stammered, equally as surprised as Donald.

"Yep. My professor said I had such good ones with the folks on campus."

Mickey and Donald shook their heads in exasperation as the group approached the science building. Upon walking in, the first thing the group smelled was some kind of unusual aroma that was a cross between strawberries and dirty sweat socks. It seemed to have gotten stronger when they headed upstairs to the fourth floor where Dr. Sean Spengler's office was.

"Man! What is that?" Alex asked, holding her nose.

"I don't know, but I just want to find Dr. Spengler and get out of here." Alexis uttered. "The more time we waste, the closer Hades gets to ending the world."

Christina noticed a couple of professors pass by and give them awkward stares as Alexis mentioned that. "Uh, Lexy? How 'bout we ixnay on the end-of-the-world-nay in public? At least 'til we get the team back together."

Alexis nodded in understanding, just as they came near an office door that had Sean Spengler's name printed on it. The weird smell reached its peak as they opened the door. It was by then that they realized the source of the smell was Spengler's office. This made it really hard for some of them to walk in, because it was so foul and nearly rotten; but they simply held their breath and stuffed their noses underneath their shirts to fight it long enough to give Spengler the message.

Walking in, the group found Spengler standing near a table and wearing a lab coat with several beakers, measuring cups, and other scientific utensils in front of him. He had a mask over his face to protect his own senses from the bad smell, and there were gloves over his hands as he poured some red liquid (which looked like "Kool Aid" to the common observer) out from one beaker and into another that was filled with an acidic liquid. The combination of the two created a billow of purple smoke that filled the entire room in less than a minute.

"This is the brainy hunk you were referring to?" Alexis asked Christina.

"He sure is," she remarked in a very sultry way.

Spengler heard the voices in the room and directed his attention away from his chemistry set and towards his visitors; he recognized Mickey, Donald, and Goofy almost immediately; but it was Christina who he took notice of the most. "I don't believe it," he said as he set down the beakers and approached her, giving him a nice, warm hug. "It's been a long time since I've seen you."

Christina nearly melted in his arms when they hugged; the last time they did was before he left to fight Gozer with the other three Ghostbusters; at that time she was afraid she would never see him again because of the whole "fighting a Sumerian God" thing. Of course, at that particular moment, it was out of sheer bliss. "Oh, Sean…I missed you so much," she told him.

The others looked on with a bit of uneasiness, seeing two people hug each other in a foul-smelling room with a shirt and mask covering their faces. "Uh," Alexis began, "Could we skip the formalities, please? Because I think we all would like to escape the funkiness of this room."

Sean and Christina let go of each other and looked to the group. Spengler was quick to change to his usual formal attitude, sounding almost deadpan as he said, "Certainly. Let's talk downstairs in my classroom."

* * *

A few moments later and a few floors down, the group met in the fresh-smelling classroom where Sean Spengler taught every Monday and Friday morning. The smell was still plaguing their senses, but not so much that it kept them from telling all that had happened to them in recent days to Spengler. Not a single thing was forgotten, from the incident on the rooftop of the Tipton Hotel to the attack at J.G.'s bookstore. It all sounded very intriguing to Spengler as he munched down on three _Nestle Crunch_ bars, just halfway into his fourth. "It appears the doors of Gozer's Temple weren't strong enough to contain even Hades," he said. "Not that it should, considering the fact that he's a god himself."

"So what do we do to stop him, Dr. Spengler?" Alexis asked with great hope.

"Well, it'll certainly take a lot more than Proton Packs and Ghost Traps to prevent him from altering reality as we know it." Sean apprised. "A god like Hades cannot be easily defeated."

Mickey rubbed his chin, thinking. "So…we get Hercules to help us?"

Spengler chuckled. "No, no. We need something _much_ stronger."

"Gwarsh," said Goofy. "Ya mean Herc's not strong enough?"

"If what you told me about Jafar and the copies of the Necronomicon that he sent to Jay's store is certain, then Hades could be working with our old enemies to destroy us." Spengler assumed. "In that event, we'll need more powerful tools to fight such otherworldly forces."

Alexis seemed as if she was starting to catch on with what he was telling them. "You mean you can invent something that'll help overpower them?"

"If I am, then it's going to take quite some time." Sean elucidated. "It took me months to develop the equipment that we used back in the day. It'll take me that same time frame or maybe even more to invent something twice as good."

Alexis shook her head. "With all due respect, Dr. Spengler, we don't have that kind of time."

"I understand." Sean finished off the _Crunch_ bar and tossed the wrappers into the nearest trashcan, dusting his hands off afterwards. "I really want to help you all out. But without the whole team back together, we're pretty much useless in this situation. I _need_ Jay's expertise to assist me in the development of the new equipment."

"And, as we said earlier, he's off fooling around with some girl named Vanessa." Alex said.

Spengler pondered over that name, feeling as if he had heard it somewhere before and whether it had to do with his old colleague. A lot of things seemed out of place in the story that Alexis and the others told him, especially the part involving Jafar. Sean studied up on Hades enough to know what kind of company he kept; although he and Jafar worked in the past to destroy their respective adversaries (Hercules and Aladdin), there was no possible way he would consider another team-up. What was Jafar's motivation in this? Was it revenge also? Or was he just aiming for the same "Ruler of the World" opportunity?

There was a knock near the door and Sean turned to see a young woman standing there and smiling; her appearance made Christina somewhat unnerving as she wondered if this woman had any involvement in Spengler's life. It was shocking enough with J.G.; but, with Sean, it would put her in such intense jealous rage. "Dr. Spengler? There's a package waiting outside for you. It's from a 'Madison Le Ficent'." Sean's eyes widened in surprise in conjunction with the woman uttering the name. "It sounded like a fake name, so I just told the delivery guy to leave it out…"

"Thank you, Mrs. Mills." Sean remarked. "I'll see to it immediately."

Christina was delighted to know that the woman at the door was married and not in any way involved with Sean; but she started to worry of the woman who sent the package to him. How did _she_ fit into his past? Then again, the name did ring a bell, but not a very good bell.

Sean walked out of the classroom with the others in tow; he stepped outside and spotted, near the foot of the steps, a large package sitting there. It was at least four feet in length and seven in width, and the name of "Madison Le Ficent" was labeled on the side, above an address that came directly from Paris, France.

"I never realized you knew anyone from France." Christina told Sean.

Spengler shook his head and said, "I don't."

He then cautiously walked over to the package and, with a Swiss Army Knife that he kept in the right pocket of his lab coat, began to tear open the package. When it finally opened, the object in question was revealed: a spinning wheel. It all started to make sense to them—the name, the address, and the object itself; only Alexis seemed not to have gotten it.

"What is this supposed to mean?" Alexis asked.

"It's a threat," said Spengler. "She knows about Hades' plan for us and the world…and she wants to take part in it all."

Mickey scratched his head in confusion. "I just don't get it. What kind of history did you all have with Maleficent?"

Even though Mickey's question was directed solely to Spengler, he didn't answer right away. He just quietly stood and gazed upon the spinning wheel, as an old memory flashed back to him…a moment that had taken place five years prior to the existence of the Ghostbusters.

**END OF CHAPTER FIVE**


	6. Night in the Le Ficent Castle

**Chapter Six: Night in the Le Ficent Castle**

October 1999

The airport in Paris, France was bustling with activity as many people from overseas arrived from a wonderful flight. Three of these people were students from Columbia University, a New York college; two of them sat down near the large window that had a view of the plane they came in outside. J.G. Stantz was reading a "Traveler's Guide" book on the wonderful sites to see in Paris; of all the spots that he found out about, a place known as "Maurice's Shop of Inventory" intrigued him the most. J.G. wondered why most Columbia U. students didn't embrace extracurricular activities like this all the time; then again, most students weren't attending college at fifteen years of age like him. It was just one of those special gifts to being a "super-genius" by the age of twelve.

The 17-year-old Sean Spengler, who was just starting his first semester at Columbia U. that season and already proving he to be as equal a genius as J.G., sat to the left of the teenager. Unlike J.G., however, he was more indulged in his laptop, looking up information on some of the most "haunting" sites of Paris—a habit he was known for having back in the States. He came across one site that looked very familiar to him, mostly because it was the spot where they were going to be staying during their time there.

"Jay, listen to this," Sean said. "The Le Ficent castle was once the site for practices of dark magic. Several of the residents were subjected to methods of torture and experimentation that would kill even the most average human being. And it's believed that some of these practices still exist there today."

J.G. looked at him in shock. "Really?" Then a smile grew on his face as he excitedly added, "That's so awesome! I can't wait 'til we get there!"

Sean shook his head and chuckled while the third member of their small group approached after coming out of the bathroom. It was Kimberly Venkman, the purple-haired, Goth-like college sophomore and best friend of J.G. and Sean. Even though she had been attending Columbia U. since she was Sean's age, Kimberly hadn't quite contributed to her academic duties as most students; she mostly depended on her two pals to help get her through getting a degree in psychology.

At the moment, Kim looked a little paler than usual, holding her stomach and even sweating a little. "Oh, man," she uttered, "I feel terrible."

"Maybe you'll think twice before eating airplane food, Kim." Sean advised. "You had almost twelve servings of that _se dégonfler sur un baton_."

"Can I help it if that chicken was so good?" Kimberly said just before muffling a belch that made J.G. and Sean shake their heads. She then directed her focus to elsewhere as a young, handsome Frenchman wearing a black suit and tie passed their way. "_Bonjour, magnifique!_ I think I'm ready for seconds!"

J.G. and Sean glanced at the man she was gawking over and noticed that he was holding a sign in front of him. When the man stopped and faced in their direction, the three got a better look at what was on his sign: all three of their last names (Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler) written in big, black letters that were readable from a distance.

"That's our limo driver, Kim." J.G. indicated. "He's here to pick us up."

Kim seemed very surprised by this. "I never knew we ordered a limo driver to take us to Le Ficent."

"As a matter of fact," J.G. said upon realization, "Neither did I."

* * *

An hour later, the three youths arrived at Le Ficent Castle. It rested high on top of an enormous hill in the forest with the tallest tower reaching above the clouds. On that particular night, there was a fierce thunderstorm, and there were moments when the castle would be struck by certain bolts. Between the night atmosphere and the lack of lighting within it, the castle gave a heavy, ominous appearance on the hill (if its bizarre history wasn't already enough to terrify everyone).

Kim, Sean, and J.G. showed themselves in after getting out of the limo and into the rain. Kimberly made sure she gave her number to the limo driver before he headed back to civilization. If she had noticed the disgusted look on his face as he drove away, she would've figured he wasn't interested (French guys dig those tanned, tall model gals…go figure). As they approached the large front door, J.G. was just about to knock on it, until the door suddenly opened on its own; it creaked in a way that seemed cliché and yet eerie to them. Of course, what more could they've expected from a haunted castle?

Walking into what they assumed was the foyer, they could barely see much in the dimly lit place. Then there was a small, lime-green light that shined straight ahead, coming towards them. The light grew brighter and larger as it neared, illuminating Kim, Sean, J.G., and everything around them. The three suddenly realized that the light was being emitted from a lantern carried by a very slim-looking woman with pale skin and long, flowing black hair; she wore a long black dress that hid much of her slim figure and, perched on her shoulder, was an orange-beaked raven.

Kimberly couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something very familiar about this woman. "Uh...hi there," she managed to say aloud. "You must be the caretaker of this 'little' place."

"I am Madison Le Ficent," the woman said with a voice that sounded creepy and somewhat sultry at the same time. "This castle has been passed down through generations of my family. I was born here...and shall die here."

The three college students stared at her blankly after she made that statement. "Well, uh...that's good to know...I guess," remarked J.G. "Uh, Miss Le Ficent? Was it you who ordered the limousine that brought us here?"

"Why, of course," she replied. "I couldn't let such fine young future scientists arrive here in some barbaric vehicle like a taxi."

"Ya live in New York long enough, ya get used to it, girlfriend." Kimberly joked, even though Le Ficent wasn't laughing all that much. She kept that eerie frown on her face the whole time they stood there, facing her. Her pet raven was just the same, looking very serious. It seemed to mimic just about every emotion she had (if she had much more than the one she was displaying then).

Le Ficent turned and faced the stairway that she descended from. "Come. I shall take you to your rooms," she offered. "You must be very uncomfortable with those wet clothes on."

"That's not the only thing," murmured Kimberly as they followed her upstairs.

* * *

Moments later, the three students had switched out of their wet clothes and into their individual nightwear. J.G. and Sean had on black undershirts and boxers, while Kimberly wore a black _X-Files _t-shirt and gray sweatpants. While J.G. was already resting in one of three beds in the bedroom they were sharing, Sean was sitting on his and fiddling with a small, rectangular-shaped handheld device that displayed graphs and numbers on an LED display. Coming out from the bathroom across the hall, Kim had been brushing her teeth as she walked into the bedroom; she noticed what Sean was doing and asked (through a mouth full of toothpaste), "What's this?"

"I'm detecting the P.K.E. levels in this building," he remarked. "And from what I'm getting here, they're way off the charts."

After brushing for what felt like minutes, Kim spat out the toothpaste in her mouth into the nearest spittoon she could find; there were several all over the castle, located in the corner of each room, usually right beside the door. Just after doing so, she told Spengler, "Can't you relax long enough to enjoy yourself? You're always so focused on playing 'ghost catcher.'"

"This is research, Venkman." Sean contradicted. "It's not meant to be fun."

Kim chuckled. "No kidding." She passed by J.G.'s bed and noticed how peaceful he looked as he slept with a copy of _Tobin's Spirit Guide_ sitting on his chest. "Awww! Look at the little tyke," she mockingly said. "At least one of you geeks knows when to take a load off."

As Kim made her way into her bed, Sean got off of his and started making his way towards the door. The device in his hands was beeping so loud that it woke up J.G. and began to drive Kim crazy. Sean's eyes widened as he glanced at the measurements displayed on the device. "I'm getting very intense readings."

"You've got to be kidding me with this!" Kimberly yelled. "It's two o'clock in the flippin' morning, man!"

J.G. wiped his eyes and glanced over at Sean. "What is it?"

"A Class 5 Vapor," answered Sean. "And it's somewhere in the highest level of this castle."

J.G. nearly tumbled over himself as he dashed over to Spengler. "Whoa! A Class 5? That's huge."

"Yeah, Sean. That's hardcore." Kimberly sarcastically commented. "And you know what'd be even cooler?" She then planted her head on the pillow and pretended to fall asleep, even mimicking a snore.

"This is serious, Kim." Sean stated. "All the research we've been dedicating ourselves to has led up to this moment. We've longed to search for a real apparition, and we've got it."

"Yeah, c'mon, Kim." J.G. added. "Ya wouldn't want to miss out on this, would ya?"

Kim's closed eyes scrunched up in immense frustration; she then began to remove the covers off her body and angrily get out of bed. "I can't believe it takes some dumb ghost to get my pasty ass out of bed this early in the morning!"

Before they all had stepped out of the bedroom, Kim grabbed a flashlight to help guide them through the dark hallway; but it was really Sean's ghost-detecting device that was guiding them through every nook and cranny of the Le Ficent castle. They wandered for an hour, searching for the source of the strong levels of ghostly energy. Soon Kim's complaining began to resurface. "Alright, enough of this shit! Sean, is your 'Ghost Boy' busted or what?"

Spengler scratched his head while gazing upon the readings. "I don't understand. According to the graph, this very spot we're standing upon is where our ghost should precisely be."

"Well, unless he's Claude Rains, I don't see a damn thing around here," said Kimberly as she gazed around at the hallway filled with tapestries and other valuable antiques, including rows of knight armors that stood at opposite sides of the hall.

J.G. rubbed his chin, also looking upon the tapestries; they all seemed to be hung within seven feet from each other, except for two particular ones that hung within _two_ feet of each other. These particular tapestries were right near the spot they were standing-where Spengler's readings were in overdrive. "I think I might have an idea of where our ghost could be." J.G. approached one of the two tapestries near them and grabbed onto it. As he had done so, something bizarre occurred that none of the three youths even noticed: **the "heads" of the knight armors began to turn and look in the direction that they were standing**. The armors "watched" J.G. tear down the tapestry, letting it hit the floor with a soft thud; revealed beneath it was a wooden door.

Venkman's curiosity suddenly replaced her agitation upon seeing the unusual secret. "Hmm...Now why would Miss Le Ficent hide something like this?"

"How 'bout we go in and check out?" J.G. suggested, and he opened the door outward, allowing Kimberly and Sean to walk in before he did. As soon as they were gone from the hallway, the knight armors move their helmets back into their original position, facing each other.

* * *

The wooden door led to a spiral stairway that seemed to take forever to reach the very top of; by the time they had, they were totally out of breath (Kim most of all), coughing and hacking while collapsing onto the cold, stoned floor. "I _really_ need to start my diet plan soon," she sputtered, "because my ass is _completely_ out of shape!"

"You're not the only one." J.G. acknowledged.

"Judging from the length of the stairs and minutes that it had taken for us to get up them, I'd say we had, in the least, lost twenty-five percent of our body fat." Sean said, wiping some sweat from his brow. "Or thirty-five, depending on the amount of perspiration."

Kim rolled her eyes, as she desperately picked herself up off the floor. "Gee, thanks, Spengler. You totally took my mind off the fact that I'm close to having a heart attack."

Just as the boys got to their feet as well, they all gazed around the room, which had a sort of dome-shaped quality to it; it was circular, with five windows that overlooked the entire forest that surrounded the castle, and there was a bed at the center, which was currently occupied by a young woman (close to J.G.'s age) with blonde hair, lips that were as red as a rose, and wearing both a golden tiara and a dress that magically changed from pink to blue at the most random times.

"Is it just me or is there something oddly familiar about this?" Kim inquired.

J.G. slowly walked up to the girl and approached the bed, looking down upon her with a sense of familiarity that matched Venkman's. It was then that it suddenly dawned upon him. "Oh, wow! This is Princess Aurora!"

"You mean from _Sleeping Beauty_?" Kim exclaimed.

"Jay, do you realize how improbable that sounds?" Sean asked.

"I know, but..." He looked closely at the "sleeping beauty" in front of him with the actual scent of roses seeping into his nostrils and instantly captivating him, "...it's _really_ her! Even smells like her!"

Kim raised an eyebrow. "Smells? She was a cartoon character when you last saw her. How the hell can you go on a smell?"

"I can't explain it, Venkman. I just know that..." J.G. never once took his eyes off of Aurora; he even sat down beside her sleeping form, getting ever so close to her inert face. "Man, is she gorgeous!"

Watching the unusual attitude that Stantz was displaying in front of them, Kimberly and Sean exchanged awkward glances. Sean's ghost-detecting device then began beeping wilder than ever; it was pointed directly on Princess Aurora and J.G., and there was only one deduction that Spengler could make from this. "JAY! SHE'S THE GHOST! GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Suddenly there was a chilling tight grasp over J.G.'s left arm, as he watched the eyes of Princess Aurora snap open. Instead of the lovely shade of blue that he remembered them from the 1959 Disney classic, they were a frightening shade of yellow, similar to the eyes of the story's villain, Maleficent. A wicked cackle emerged from within "Princess Aurora" as J.G. tried to fight off the tight grasp that she had over his arm; once he was able to, he backed away from her and regrouped with Venkman and Spengler. The three watched in shock as "Aurora" got up from the bed while slowly morphing into the form of Maleficent, still letting out that eerie cackle.

"I knew there was something that freaked me out about this bitch," shouted Kimberly.

Maleficent sneered at J.G. "Still believing in pointless fairy tales, Mister Stantz? Always the hopeless romantic? You'll soon learn the hard way that no one ever gets a happy ending in the real world!"

"You're one to talk, considering that you're right out of a fairy tale yourself." Kimberly clarified. "One with a _happy_ ending, I might add, with you getting a sword lunged into your heart."

"Silence, you pathetic, little wench!" Maleficent bellowed.

Kimberly frowned, her eyes suddenly filled with rage. "Oh, no she did _not_ just call me a wench!"

She was about to advance on her until Sean held out an arm in front of her to hold her back. "You cannot possibly be the _real_ Maleficent," he said. "You must be a shape-shifter of some kind or a specter that can manifest itself into different images that it observes."

"You are wrong, Mr. Spengler." Maleficent retorted. "For I am _the_ Maleficent that you know from your feeble retelling of Princess Aurora's story…only I am much more dangerous than the way Walt Disney interpreted me."

Venkman scoffed. "Oh, really? Well, from where I'm standing, girlfriend, you're the same stupid _witch_ that I remember being scared of when I was three."

Maleficent glared at Kimberly. "Heed my warning, children! You shall witness the _true_ nature of my powers when your world comes to an unforeseen end. And you shall know the _real_ difference between fairy tales and reality when you fall victim to death itself!"

There came another wicked cackle from Maleficent, and then the light from the top of her staff detached itself and hovered in the air; it suddenly sucked her entire form up into it and afterwards imploded into nothingness. A squawking noise echoed through the room, and the three youths spotted Maleficent's pet raven, Diablo, flying around the room and then out through one of the windows.

Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler all exchanged bewildered looks after the bizarre encounter. And, out of all that had happened in the short span of time, all Kim had to say for it was, "I wonder how we're gonna get back to town."

**Present Day**

Mickey and the others sat down at the desks inside of Sean Spengler's classroom, listening closely to him as he told the whole story of his encounter with the "real" Maleficent. "So...you think that she's staying true to her word now?" asked the mouse.

Sean gazed at the spinning wheel that was brought into the room (via forklift) for study. "If she is, then she's not proving herself to be more dangerous than she was in the fairy tale." He gestured to the object itself. "This is the same trick she used on Aurora, only I'm not hypnotized from its power like she was."

"For a while, we thought you were," said Christina, "When you were gawkin' at it for so long."

"It just brought back a lot of memories." Spengler stated. "Maleficent was the first ghost we had ever encountered. And now she's back."

"How do you know it's her?" Alexis asked. "It could be some prankster. Someone who knew about your history with her and thought it'd make some nice and yet stupid joke to pull off on you."

Sean walked over to his desk at the front of the room, reached inside one of the drawers, and pulled out his P.K.E. meter. "I'm certain it's her, because I'm getting the _exact_ same readings I had the last time we crossed paths." He pointed the device to the spinning wheel, and it made loud and rapid beeping noises while its winged arms on top had risen in response to the psycho-kinetic energy that the object gave off. "This wheel has practically got her fingerprints all over it."

"You think she could try and get herself involved in all that Hades got going on right now?" Christina inquired.

Spengler adjusted his glasses as he responded, "If her motive is to assure the end of the world, then yes. My theory is that her power grows stronger the closer we get to possible Armageddon."

Alexis let out a deep sigh as the weight of the situation seemed to have increased upon her shoulders. She got up from the desk she was sitting in and walked up to Sean. "Dr. Spengler, we know there's not much you can do technical-wise for this situation," she indicated, "but your expertise in this field could still be of great help to us."

Sean looked up and down at Alexis, noting the tattered jumpsuit that once belonged to Kim Venkman on her. For someone who had only begun her time of ghost-busting a couple of days ago, she already had the look of a professional. And, as odd as it sounded to him, seeing her this way gave him a sense of hope for this _seemingly hopeless_ situation. "Alright," he said. "But we must try to get Jay involved. It's of the upmost importance that we get him to come back to the team. Without him, I don't know if there's a chance we could stand against Hades, Jafar, _or_ Maleficent altogether."

Alexis grinned upon saying, "Maybe with two more Ghostbusters, the odds won't seem so overwhelming."

Spengler raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Who will be approaching next for this mission?"

In response to his question, Alexis looked down upon the jumpsuit she was wearing with a big smile on her face. She then looked back at Spengler, who rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation. _She could possibly be the hardest one to convince in coming back_, he thought to himself.

**END OF CHAPTER SIX**


	7. Doctor Venkman, I Guess?

**Chapter Seven: Dr. Venkman...I Guess?**

Although it was hard and cold, Hades' throne was just the perfect place to take a snooze, and the proof of that was in the unbelievable (and irritating) way he was snoring. His dark, smoking form was sprawled out across it, and he was drooling (his saliva practically boiling hot, evident from the way it burnt through the floor like acid when it hit there). Even Pain and Panic were forced to cover their ears from the noise as they engaged in a game of cards nearby.

"He's been asleep for hours." Panic whispered. "Shouldn't we wake him up or something?"

"If you wanna get burnt to a crisp, be my guest." Pain remarked.

And then, out of the blue, Hades' snoring had ceased; his eyes suddenly snapped open, and he sat upright in his throne. "WHOA!"

Pain and Panic were instantly startled, throwing their cards up into the air and scattering them all over the floor. On instinct, they both began to apologize and beg for mercy. "We're sorry! We didn't mean to wake you! Please don't vaporize us! We'll be quiet! We swear!"

Hades wasn't obviously paying much attention to them as he got up from the throne and walked towards the edge of the rooftop. "I had, like, the craziest dream of all crazy dreams just now."

"Crazier than the one where you were pulling out a VHS copy of _Pinocchio_ made out of human flesh from your stomach?" Pain inquired.

"Yeah…believe it or not," said Hades, before taking a deep breath and running his fingers through the flames on his head. "I dreamt…that I was doing _it_…that I was finally ruling the world."

"What's so crazy about that?" Panic asked.

"Yeah," added Pain, "Isn't that what you want?"

Hades' eyes darted left and right, almost seemingly paranoid. "Of course that's what I want. That's what I've always wanted. Why else would I plan all of _this_, if I weren't interested in taking over the world?" He nervously paced back and forth, confusing his two minions. He _really_ had them perplexed when he uttered, "It's just…I don't think it was _me_."

Pain and Panic exchanged an awkward glance that was quick enough for Hades to not see. The last thing they wanted their leader to suspect was the fact that he had gone completely nuts. "Uh…if it wasn't you, Your Evilness, then who was it?"

"That's the thing. It was me, but not _me_! I mean, there I was, watching the world crumble into the new underworld, but it was almost like I was possessed by another force of evil…or…something." His back was facing Pain and Panic, so he could clearly not see the way Pain was swirling his finger near his left ear to signify that their leader had lost it. Hades rubbed his temples and breathed heavily as he ordered, "Just give me the current status of our 'situation'."

"Well, the brown-haired girl with the funky old Ghostbuster uniform got the brainiac to join them." Pain informed.

"Still no luck though on what's-his-name." Panic added.

Hades pounded his fist on the ledge, creating a charred spot where it hit. "We need all four of them back in the saddle, in order for this plan to work! What's the matter with Stantz, anyways?"

"According to the image the Fates showed us, he's totally in love with some girl named Vanessa." Panic revealed.

Hearing that name, Hades pondered over it for a moment; something about it sounded really familiar to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Quickly choosing to forget about it, he refocused on the main situation. "It's only a minor distraction. I'm sure Jaffie's got it all taken care of."

"Are ya sure we can trust him, boss?" Pain asked. "I mean, he didn't impress much with that Necronomicon gig."

"The 'gig' was supposed to convince him to rejoin the team." Hades answered. "But when the 'desperate housewife' showed up, we had to move from Plan B to Plan D."

Pain and Panic scratched their heads in confusion. "Uh…remind us again what Plan B was?" Panic said.

"Yeah, and…uh…Plans A, C, and D, too?" Pain adjoined.

Hades rubbed his eyes in frustration, trying to figure out what made him hire such complete morons. "All you boys need to know is that - despite a few, small setbacks - everything's going according to plan." He returned back to his throne, seeming to be in complete control. However, the memories of that bizarre dream continued to haunt him. If only he could figure out what it all had meant.

* * *

A taxi driver came to a complete stop at a restaurant called "Hoots" near Times Square. It was bustling with several groups of hungry (and lonely) male citizens, and only a scarce number of females who were either with the males or with other females. There was a line formed near the entrance, which was being guarded by a tall black man wearing a tight black t-shirt and black jeans to match; he wore an earpiece to stay in touch with the other security personnel, while allowing reserved guests into the club.

The driver turned to his customer, a man wearing a hardhat and a tattered blue jumpsuit with the name "Nicky" tagged on it, and asked, "Here's yer stop, pal. That'll be fifty bucks." The man did not respond; instead, he looked out the window, staring at the busy restaurant. "Yo, buddy. What you do in yer spare time is yer business. But I need ya to pay your fee and get yer ass out, so I can pick up some more paying cust…"

"Silence, fool!" The man glared directly at the driver with glowing red eyes, speaking in a voice that was dark, sinister, and eerie. The driver was suddenly mesmerized, unable to retaliate to the harsh order (or even move). "You will remain here until I return!"

And the taxi driver oddly responded, "Y-Yes, Your Majesty."

The man whose name appeared to be Nicky climbed out of the taxicab, walking right up to the Hoots entrance; he unknowingly broke in line as he walked right past one waiting customer and the bouncer, who made certain not to let him get away with it. The bouncer forcibly grabbed him by the arm and said, "Yo, bro. No cuts. You're gonna have to wait in line like everybody else."

Nicky turned to the bouncer and looked deeply into his eyes. The bouncer gave him a bizarre look as he noted the way they were glowing. At first he believed it to be the lack of sleep he had been getting, due to his highly demanding job; he began to rub them, slowly and softly at first, but then he rubbed them harder and faster as he suddenly felt a burning sensation in them. The bouncer moaned in pain, letting go of Nicky and dropping to his knees, crying out for help.

Taking advantage of the distraction he had mastered, Nicky walked right inside the restaurant, which was even busier inside than it was out. There was a crowded scene as men engaged in activities that rowdy males often did, such as drinking games, sloppy eating, and flirting with the waitresses; they were practically the reason for being there. Hoots was a place filled with the loveliest waitresses, dressed in white tank tops with the company logo and location name on the front paired with short orange runner's shorts. However, Nicky was less than interested in the food, drinks, or waitresses in the restaurant for an important reason.

As the possessed worker looked for his desired target, he passed right by a table that was occupied by Alexis, Christina, Dr. Spengler, Alex, Cody, and the Ajax exterminators, not once looking in their direction. Although Spengler and Christina knew exactly why they were there at Hoots, the others had no clue; but, despite that, the Ajax exterminators were thrilled to be eating such delicious hot wings.

"Okay," uttered Alexis, "not that I mind being in a place with lots of hot guys…"

"_And_ girls!" Cody exclaimed as he noticed a waitress pass by.

Alexis rolled her eyes before continuing. "But why would a former scientist be in this kind of hangout?"

"Because Venkman, as you know, isn't your ordinary scientist." Christina observed. "She's always been obsessed with this place, ever since there was a bust here back in the summer of 2006."

"What kind of ghost did you guys bust?" Alex inquired.

"You don't want to know," replied Spengler, before he went back to tinkering with the inside of his P.K.E. Meter.

Seeing this, Alexis couldn't help but to tell him, "I doubt that you'll really need that here, Dr. Spengler. The only monsters here are the ones near the all-you-can-eat buffet bar."

"I'm only gearing up for when we encounter Maleficent," he said. "Those readings I got from the spinning wheel were a little stronger than the last time I scanned anything that had her trace."

"Is that bad?" Mickey queried, between bites of the wings.

"Of course not." Spengler responded. "It only means that the meter is a bit outdated and needs a good tune-up."

"How did you come to make that thing, anyways?" Christina asked him. "And don't give me that old 'I got a good deal at _RadioShack_' excuse."

Spengler chuckled. "Trust me, Christina. If I told you, then you might have to ask more questions that'll lead on to more questions, and so on."

She stared at him blankly, obviously puzzled. "A simple 'I'll tell you later' would've been nice, Sean."

Alex looked around, hoping to see Dr. Venkman approaching. "We've been sitting here for hours," she impatiently said. "What if we missed her?"

A waitress then approached their table with a smile that was disrupted by the gum in her mouth. "How ya peeps doin' tonight? Enjoyin' the food?" Donald and Goofy both gave a greasy thumb-up response, their mouths being too full to even utter a word.

"Uh, excuse me, ma'am." Christina said. "But we're lookin' for Kim Venkman." The waitress gave her a dumbfounded look. "She's a redhead…used to be a Ghostbuster."

It seemed to have been the Ghostbuster part that clued the waitress in. "Oh! Ya mean Midori Kai!"

Christina looked to the others, hoping for some sort of advice; all they did was shrug their shoulders. She turned to the waitress and asked, "Do you know where 'Midori Kai' is right now?"

"She should be onstage in a couple of minutes."

Alexis's eyes widened with surprise. "Onstage? You mean she's a performer here?"

"On Friday nights, she does karaoke for all the customers here." The waitress notified. "It's a little somethin' we let her do after givin' us so much good service."

All of the sudden, the lights in the building began to dim, and a spotlight shined on the stage close to the table where they were sitting. The manager of Hoots, a man in his mid-thirties with a black copyrighted t-shirt and beige-colored pants, walked into the spotlight with a microphone in hand.

With the voice of a sugar-crazed disc jockey, he bellowed into the microphone, "Are all you crazy assholes havin' fun tonight?" All the men in the audience, with the exception of Spengler and Mickey, roared with applause and obscenity; some had done so with mouths full of food and alcohol. "Well, get ready! Because ya ain't seen nothin' yet!" There came a song over the speakers (an oldie from the 90s by C+C Music Factory), while multi-colored lights shined all throughout the room. "Back by popular demand…Midori Kai!"

The crowd of rowdy males grew louder in cheers as Kimberly Venkman herself walked onstage, wearing tight black jeans and a Hoots t-shirt with a midriff; she smiled so brightly that her teeth practically sparkled in contrast to the spotlight. For a few minutes, Kim posed for the boys in the audience, and then she took the microphone out of the manager's hands and started singing karaoke.

"_Give me the music! Give me the music! Everybody dance now!_" She waved her hands in the air, urging the audience on in the sing-along. "C'mon, boys! You know the words!"

"_Everybody dance now!_" They sang.

Kim bounced around onstage, pointing and winking at a few gentlemen, as she sang the next set of lyrics. "_Here is the doe, back with bass. The jam is live in effect and I don't waste time or the mike if it don't rhyme. Jump to the rhythm, jump-jump to the rhythm jump! Take a chance, come on and dance! Guys, grab a girl, don't wait, make a whirl! It's your world and I'm just a swirl! Trying to get a nut and move your butt to the dance floor, so yo what's up! Hands in the air, come on and say…_"

"_YEAH!_"

"_Everybody over here, everybody over there! The crowd is live and I feel this groove! Party people in the house…move!_" On the word "move," she danced in a very sultry way on stage, which forced Mickey to cover the eyes of Cody and Alex, and Goofy to cover Donald's, while Donald covered Goofy's. "_Let your mind…move! Put me online!_ C'mon, fellas! Help me out!"

The crowd of men sang together with Kim on the chorus: "_C'mon, let's sweat, baby! Let the music take control, let the rhythm move you! Sweat…Sweat! Let the music take control, let the rhythm move you!_"

Alexis shook her head, watching the founder of the Ghostbusters jiggle like a college girl before the rambunctious males. "So this is what a former scientist does after busting ghosts? Shake her ass for a bunch of raging hormones?"

"She was always the wild one," said Christina with a chuckle. "Something like this doesn't surprise me one bit."

Trying his best to ignore the crowd, Sean Spengler put the finishing touches on the P.K.E. Meter. Once he placed its cover back on and activated it, its arms instantly raised up and the readouts indicated heavy amounts of activity. They all appeared very familiar to Spengler, who suddenly got extremely nervous. He got up from the table and looked around, catching the attention of his friends.

"Sean, what's wrong?" Christina asked him.

"She's here! Maleficent's here!" Spengler divulged.

The rest of them jumped out of their seats as well from this, looking around along with Spengler; he was letting the P.K.E. Meter guide him to the source. The P.K.E. was aimed towards several customers in the room until it fell upon one that was making his way to the stage, staring oddly at Kimberly. The P.K.E. Meter practically vibrated in Spengler's hand as it was aimed at this man wearing a hardhat and jumpsuit with the name "Nicky" tagged on it. Spengler quickly became confused, thinking that he might've crossed a few wires in the device.

Nicky approached the stage, only to be met by a security guard who blocked his path. "Wait 'til the girl's finished, dude!" But he quickly disposed of this guard, who was way bigger than him, grabbing him by the collar and tossing him across the air, causing him to crash into the buffet bar; but the noise could barely be heard amongst the wild crowd. The only person to witness the action was Spengler, who gazed upon the P.K.E. readouts once more and deduced that Maleficent was using the mortal's body for a disguise, and she was aiming to go after Kim. Spengler quickly let the others know of this. "The guy in the hardhat! It's her! And she's going for Venkman!" He pointed in Nicky's direction, and the others turned and looked at him, just as he went onstage.

"You sure he's not just another college freshman?" Alexis asked him.

As soon as everyone saw Nicky on the stage, they started booing, even going as far as throw food at him. Both Kim and the music stopped the moment this man came onstage; she was totally lost on what to do, but didn't seem to lose her cool. "Whoa, there, dude. I've got nothin' but love for all my peeps, but…"

"Silence!" Nicky sneered at her. "You foolish woman! Do you not recognize me?"

Kim looked up and down at the man, scratching her head with the microphone and making a slight feedback noise in the process. "Uh…I'm totally stumped. This is one of the reasons why I never go on _Deal or No Deal_."

"She's Maleficent, Venkman!" Spengler spoke out from the crowd; hearing his familiar voice, Kim tried to find him in the crowd; luckily, the spotlight fell on him and the others, directing all customers' attention to them. Alex, Cody, and the Ajax exterminators waved at the crowd, not expecting to be the center of attention.

"Shit! This night's just filled with surprises." Kim shouted.

Nicky glared and grinned at Spengler. "Well, well…I find one and gain another one. How…marvelous."

"What's your game this time, Maleficent?" Spengler investigated. "Something tells me you've found a team player of your own."

One of the customers, observing the exchange, turned to a friend and asked, "Was _tonight_ 'NFL Night'? Damn!"

"If you are implying, Dr. Spengler, that I have allied myself with Lord Hades, then you are gravely mistaken." Nicky/Maleficent claimed. "For I have my own part in this 'plan' of his."

Before Spengler could've questioned what it was, an angry customer yelled out from the crowd, "What messed-up shit is this? I didn't come here to see some freak show! I came here to see some freaks!" All of the other customers screamed out in agreement with him.

"Silence, you barbaric imbeciles!" Nicky/Maleficent commanded, but no one seemed to care for his/her order.

"Silence _this_, asshole!" said one customer, who threw a half full glass of beer at the insane character. However, once it got near him/her, it stopped and hovered in midair. Nicky/Maleficent glared upon it with glowing red eyes. The object suddenly turned the same color and then shattered into many pieces before the very eyes of everyone in the restaurant.

This bizarre occurrence was enough to scare the wits out of everyone, except for Spengler and his friends (who had seen their share of strangeness in recent days). Without a second thought, they began pulling out of the restaurant, toppling over each other on the way out. A shocked Kim Venkman jumped off the stage, getting as far away as she could from Nicky or Maleficent or whoever the hell she or he was; she went directly to Spengler and the others. "Just when I found my groove, you bring Freddy Kruger here!"

"Is there a backdoor out of here, Dr. Venkman?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah, follow me." She affirmed; and, in the confusion, they started to make their way out of the restaurant through the back entrance.

Passing between the locker room and the kitchen, they made it out into the filthy, smelly alleyway. The alley was cluttered with trash from the overflowing dumpsters and had heavy rodent activity all around. "Ugh!" Alexis exclaimed. "How could such a popular hangout have so much garbage?" Kim gawked at her with a sarcastic look, and she soon realized the irony of her question. "Oh...uh, never mind."

Kimberly smiled at the girl wearing her old, funky jumpsuit and said, "There's a Hoots minivan just around the corner. We'll take that and get the fu…" She immediately stopped as soon as the nearest wall crumbled to pieces, and Nicky/Maleficent walked right out, standing in the way of the group. Kim couldn't help but to roll her eyes at this. "Oh, what is it you want, girlfriend?"

"To see the end of humanity…starting with yours!"

With a sneer, Nicky/Maleficent quickly advanced on them; but, as soon as he/she got near Venkman, she instinctively kicked the sinister being's possessed form right between the legs. Nicky/Maleficent's eyes nearly bulged out on impact, as he/she fell directly to the ground, whimpering in pain. Kim looked to her friends, who stared at her in disbelief, and shrugged. "Pffh! You'd think she would've gone for something in her own sex."

Still leading the way, Kim and the others walked over Nicky/Maleficent and disappeared down the alleyway. He/She heard the sound of a car engine starting and knew instantly that his/her prey had gotten away. The moment they vanished, Nicky's body glowed in bright greenish hue, giving off an eerie haze of the same color. The haze then manifested into the ghostly form of Maleficent herself, who still winced in the same pain that Nicky was feeling. "Ohhh! I have forgotten how flawed the male body is! But it seems yours is the most flawed of all!"

Nicky coughed, as he stared up at the specter. "What in God's name are youse? What've ya done to me?"

"Obviously, nothing that heathen, Kimberly Venkman, could have done worse of!" Maleficent exclaimed. "If I were only at full power right now, I would show you how much I could do to you! Unfortunately, my powers have not fully manifested, since you inadvertently freed me from that underground prison."

"I'm a Catholic man, lady!" Nicky yelled. "I've got God on my side! And I know for a fact that whatever youse do, He won't let ya get away with it!"

Maleficent chuckled. "Is that so? Well, I certainly cannot let a pure spirit like yours be corrupted by mine. Perhaps I shall find one that is not so pure." Her ghostly form then materialized into a haze again and floated down the alleyway, leaving Nicky behind on the ground to soon be found by a team of police officers that immediately placed him under arrest. Despite his thousand pleas of being possessed by a ghost, he was whisked away to the nearest police station.

Meanwhile, Maleficent found herself a new host: the taxi driver who brought her and Nicky to the restaurant. The driver had still been under her control the whole time she was away, much to her advantage. Maleficent needed a human form to possess long enough for her powers to return, and she only hoped _this_ male form was much tougher than the previous one. "Well, Mister…" She gawked at the driver's license and read the name of her host, "Nathaniel…interesting name. Let us see how far we can go with _your_ body." She then drove away from the scene, continuing her task.

* * *

Kim chuckled upon uncovering the box full of ghost-busting equipment in the minivan that was driven by Christina. "I don't believe it. It's all here. Every single piece of junk we ever used nearly a year ago." She shook her head and grinned as she added, "And all because ol' Hades wants another shot at kicking our asses."

"Have you figured out what she meant by playing her own part in his plan, Dr. Spengler?" Alexis asked.

Sean shook his head. "But it's obvious that she knows about it and how we're involved. She probably wanted a shot at us before Hades could get one."

"The nerve of that woman to come up in my grill and tell me to shut up in front of all my peeps." Kim said, and raised a finger up in declaration. "She gonna pay for that. I don't care how long you've been cooped up somewhere."

"Relax, Dr. Venkman." Christina uttered. "I doubt you lost the respect of all those sex-obsessed boys."

Kim scoffed. "And I thought it was my singing they liked." She reached inside the box of ghost-busting equipment and detached a Proton Gun from one of the packs. She carefully looked at it and got a nostalgic feeling, while continuing to address her friends. "So, uh, you guys weren't able to get Jay and Diana in on this little reunion?"

"Well, Jay's too busy playing fairy tales with his new girlfriend," Christina replied, "and we're on our way to see…"

"Wait," interrupted Venkman, "My boy Jay's got himself a _mamasita_ in his life right now? Why wasn't I notified of this historic event?"

Spengler rolled his eyes in disgust. "Venkman, could you at least _pretend_ to be interested in what we're dealing with here. It isn't just Hades and Maleficent. It's Jafar as well."

"Damn! The _entire_ Village People are back?"

"He came at us in Dr. S's shop with a bunch of _live_ copies of the Necronomicon." Alex told her. "They were sent by this Jafar guy for some funky reason."

Kimberly stared at her strangely for a minute and then said, "I'm sorry. I just got lost on the fact that we've got Mouseketeers working with us here."

Goofy chuckled as he looked over at Cody and Alex. "Gwarsh! I've really got to catch up on current events." The two children just awkwardly looked at the character, neither of them bothering to remark.

"And you," said Kim, gesturing to Alexis. "I mean, how in the hell did you get into my old uniform?"

Alexis looked down at it and sheepishly chuckled. "I was just…oh, man…I really can't explain, Dr. Venkman. I'm so sorry."

"Oh, no. I'm not mad." Kimberly admitted. "A little perplexed maybe, considering the fact there's a strange girl in my old clothes…but I think it looks pretty sweet on you."

A flattered Alexis smiled. "You really think so?"

"Well, the butt area's a little baggy—mostly because I was still an extra ten pounds at the time—but everything else looks…awesome." She smiled at her; and, even though there wasn't a spotlight on her at the time, her smile still had that sparkling quality. Something about the way Kim smiled was like magic; it was exactly the reason why she was the spokeswoman for the Ghostbusters. "Just make sure you wash it after you take it off. Because, girlfriend, you smell like Kobe Bryant's socks after a Lakers game."

That was the funny thing about Kimberly Venkman to Alexis: _just when the magic is there for you to admire, out comes the classic "Venkman Wit" to take it away_; but, despite that, Venkman had a heart of gold. Alexis couldn't figure out why Dr. Spengler would seem so skeptical in recruiting Kim back into the team; she couldn't even figure out the one thing that had been boggling her mind for almost a year: **why did the Ghostbusters ever split up?** Alexis figured that time would be the best one to ask that question, since two of the founding members were there in the flesh; unfortunately, Kim had spoken up before she could have the chance.

"So where do we intend on finding 'Little Miss Sunshine' anyways?"

"Well, remember Diana always talked about doing something special for the kids when we were doing birthday parties and school events between busts?" Christina asked.

A grin crept across Kim's face. "Oh, man! You ain't sayin'…" It got strangely quiet in the van, until Venkman busted with laughter. "Dude! Put the pedal to the metal, Chris! I have just _got_ to see this shit!"

Sean and Christina both began to feel very agitated over Venkman's enthusiasm in witnessing the new job being occupied by Diana Zeddemore; at that point, they regretted going to Kim first. Had they chosen otherwise, they would be spared of the anxiety of heading to their next destination: Pizza Planet.

**END OF CHAPTER SEVEN**


	8. Miss Zeddemore, I Suppose

**Chapter Eight: Miss Zeddemore, I Suppose**

"I WANT ICE CREAM!" shouted a five-year-old boy to his stressed parents, who were doing their best to satisfy their son's needs; and they weren't the only ones. Other parents, ones that came in pairs and ones that were single, had out-of-control children with them at Pizza Planet. Some kids cried and screamed; others kicked and threw food while laughing uncontrollably. It was a nightmarish scene, and in the middle of it all was the manager: a short, balding man with an apple-shaped body and lack of patience.

Doing his best to ignore all the chaos, the manager spoke over the phone with one of another business. "How long will it take Miss Zeddemore to get here?" He carried his voice over the noise to hear himself and placed a hand over his ear to hear the man on the other end. "With all due respect, sir, but I'd appreciate it if she would've gotten here at least six _hours_ ago!" All of the sudden, a cheeseburger flew in from left field and connected with the hand holding the phone, causing him to drop it, as well as cover the whole left side of his face with pickles, ketchup, and tomato. "I knew I should've gone to college."

The manager kept his eyes on the entrance to Pizza Planet, waiting for "Miss Zeddemore" to arrive. For a moment, when the double doors slid open, he thought she had and felt greatly relieved; but, once he noticed three Caucasian women, an African American man, a blond boy, a Hispanic/Italian girl, and three Disney characters walking in, he sighed and returned to his nervous state.

Kim couldn't suppress a smile as she gazed at the chaotic sight in front of her; it reminded her why she avoided having children (as well as stayed single). Of course, the real joy Venkman got out of the scene was the notion of her old teammate, Diana Zeddemore, ending up in the middle of it all; yet, she was a little disappointed when she realized that Diana was nowhere around.

"How come she ain't here?" Kimberly asked.

Spengler glanced at his digital wristwatch. "She's usually here at eight o'clock. She must've gotten caught in traffic."

"Well, let's at least make the best outta it," said Mickey, before turning to Goofy, Donald, Cody, and Alex. "C'mon, fellas. Let's go play a few games."

Cody was already heading in the direction of the arcade games. "I'm so gonna beat Zack's high score on _Aliens: Extermination_!"

Alex scoffed at this idea of Mickey's. "I'm too old for little kiddie games." She stopped once she saw a couple of kids playing rounds of intergalactic skeeball, in which a squishy "alien ball" was rolled down the lane and into the holes that resembled the solar system. "_Although_ I did see a cute _iPod_ on the way in that I could cash a hefty sum of tickets for." And with that statement, she was off to grab a cupful of tokens.

With the kids off and doing their own thing, the adults took position at the nearest booth that wasn't occupied by rowdy children or exhausted parents. Alexis gawked at the wild scene a little more closely than Kimberly had; she couldn't get past the notion of a former Ghostbuster working at a family restaurant as an entertainer for children, and it once again brought her to the question of how the Ghostbusters came to split up. "I guess now's a better time than any to ask this, but…" She paused and swallowed hard, a little worried that bad memories might resurface from bringing it up. "How come you all disbanded the team? Weren't you a successful, working team?"

Kim, Sean, and Christina turned to each other, exchanging disgruntled expressions; for a while, they were absolutely silent, obviously unsure of what to tell the rookie. Finally, Kim said, "It wasn't _our_ choice to split up, kiddo. It was the city of New York's decision."

Alexis's face scrunched up in confusion. "The city split you guys up?"

"Well, it was the Mayor, to be more precise." Sean stated. "He and his staff discovered that we caused billions of dollars' worth of property damage, during one of the busiest years of ghost-busting we ever had."

"So we shut down the business and each took odd jobs to help pay for all the damages." Christina added.

Alexis shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe the city would treat you all like that. I mean…don't they know you're doing it for a good cause?"

"When politics sticks its funky nose in, heroic deeds aren't worth shit, hon." Kimberly stated. "All that matters are dollar signs and subpoenas…and we've seen enough of both to realize when we're beat."

Alexis sighed. "I don't get it. Why didn't the news or anybody else mention this to the public? Your fans?"

"Think about it, rookie," instructed Kim. "If _you_ were mayor and forced one of the finest businesses in New York to shut down because of lawsuits and money over aging complexes, would _you_ spill the beans to _millions_ of fans?"

Alexis nodded in understanding, but it didn't make up for the fact that it was all pure bull crap. After all the Ghostbusters had done for New York City, this was how they repaid them. It seemed to Alexis Embers that times really had changed since Gozer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. The world's greatest heroes were now reduced to regular citizens…at least until they reunite and become the team they once were again.

"Welcome to Pizza Planet, earthlings!" They turned and noticed how the waiter was dressed in a spacesuit. It was enough to make Kim, Sean, Christina, and Alexis lower their heads to save themselves from embarrassment. "How may I beam your order from Planet K to Spaceport C?"

Kim looked towards Sean and whispered, "Just when I thought _you_ were a rare species."

Spengler grinned at Venkman, while Christina told the unusual waiter, "We'll just take four sodas, please." The astronaut/waiter saluted the customers before walking off to his "home base": the kitchen.

The sound of the Pizza Planet entrance sliding open caught their attention, and they turned to see the next victim of the chaotic evening at the restaurant. The group was instantly surprised when it turned out to be Diana Zeddemore herself, looking exactly the way they last saw her…well, sort of. Diana was wearing an amateur copy of her old uniform, which looked as if it was a few sizes too small; this was obvious from the way her white socks and part of her shin were exposed, the front wasn't zipped all the way (creating some cleavage), and the sleeves were all the way up to her elbows. There was also the matter of treads sticking out from the seams, signifying a possible chance of it all coming apart with just the slightest bit of movement; but Diana was careful as she stiffly walked in with an _inflatable_ "Proton Pack" strapped on.

Upon seeing her, Venkman, Spengler, Christina, and Alexis felt almost disappointed to see what she had been reduced to. Zeddemore had always been the toughest of their team; but to see her with an inflatable replica of a Proton Pack was beyond sad, and yet Kimberly Venkman could not stifle a laugh. "Oh, man! This has got to be the best night _ever_!"

Kim's laughing could be heard over all the screaming children in the restaurant; as much as the others tried to compose her, she had already generated enough attention from some of the other customers. Eventually, it reached Diana's ears and shifted her focus to their table. The sight of Kimberly Venkman laughing her ass off was enough to create an uncomfortable feeling over Diana—as if the costume itself hadn't already.

"Oh, damn." Diana uttered.

Diana was just about to walk towards her friends, until the Pizza Planet manager popped up right in front of her and blocked her path. "Miss Zeddemore! Where have you been? Little Andrew's party has gone berserk! The parents are threatening to leave! And I'm…" _SPLAT!_ Another meal came in contact with the manager's face; ironically, the side of it that had just been cleanse of previous meal thrown at him. "I'm going back home to mother."

"Don't worry, Mr. Brewster." Diana assured. "I'll get right to entertaining the little sweeties as soon as possible." Brewster unenthusiastically nodded in approval before returning to his office. Once he was gone, Diana approached the table where Kimberly Venkman, Sean Spengler, Christina Melnitz, and their friend in the old, funky Ghostbuster jumpsuit were sitting. She made it pretty obvious that she wasn't too happy when she asked, "What the _hell_ are you all doing here?"

"We came to see how far that poor excuse of an imitation rides up, before you start lose your mind." Kim answered, right before Diana reached behind her to tug down on the seat of her jumpsuit, which _was_ starting to ride up a bit.

Ignoring Venkman's teasing, Alexis stood up and extended a hand out to Diana. "Miss Zeddemore, I'm Alexis Embers. It's really an honor to meet…"

"Oh, my god!" Kim exclaimed as she got up from the table and stood behind Diana, gawking at her fake Proton Pack. "Seriously, where did you get this thing? Couldn't you have gone to one of those expensive geeks who've got way too much time on their hands?"

"Listen, Venkman," snapped Diana, turning to stare eye-to-eye with her, "The only reason I've had to tolerate this job for a whole year is because you couldn't keep track on the finance of our business!"

"Of course not." Kim boldly admitted. "That's Chris's job."

Christina rolled her eyes in disgust. "Gosh, thanks, Dr. Venkman."

Alexis quickly reinserted herself back into the conversation before it drifted off-topic. "Miss Zeddemore, the _real_ reason we came here was to tell you about the threat our world is facing right now from Hades, Lord of the Underworld."

Diana was caught off guard by Alexis's statement. "Our old flame-headed friend from the Gozer incident? You're kiddin' me!"

"I'm afraid not, Diana." Sean declared. "Several bizarre occurrences have all pointed to a possible plot of revenge by Hades. He's already used Jafar to attack J.G. at his bookstore; and even our first apparition, Maleficent, has made it clear that she's somehow involved in this."

"Man!" Diana remarked. "You go out of action for a year and the whole world's already in deep shit." She then reminded herself of the mentioning of a fellow Ghostbuster by Spengler and realized he was not with them. "Where's Jay?"

Kim sighed. "That's been the question of the week, apparently."

"He's been with this new girlfriend of his named Vanessa." Christina said.

Diana's index finger went to her chin as she pondered for a second. "Now why does that sound familiar?"

_AAAAAHHHH!_

The scream didn't come from any of the children in the restaurant; it came directly from the kitchen area and was enough to bring the parents and their kids to a stop. All eyes went to the set of doors leading to that area, just as the astronaut/waiter busted out, covered with some type of green ooze. The look on his face displayed a mixture of horror, disgust, and panic; he dashed through all parts of the restaurant until he reached the exit, which didn't open fast enough to accommodate his escape, forcing him to _crash_ through it instead.

Everyone stood in silence over the sudden incident, except for Venkman, who shouted to the fleeing waiter, "Hey! What about our sodas?"

Suddenly, more screams emerged from the kitchen as other employees fled the area; they were each dripping with the same type of funky-smelling ooze on their clothes. The smell that fumigated the air brought back some foul memories to Kimberly and Sean. Immediately, Spengler pulled out the P.K.E. Meter and turned it on to pull up the readings that it detected from the kitchen.

Diana turned to him as soon as she heard the device beep. "What're you getting?"

Spengler's eyes were focused on the meter, but they soon darted towards the entrance to the kitchen. A translucent green blob creature with two skinny arms, no feet, and several chins phased through the kitchen doors, leaving behind a glob of ectoplasm all over it. It opened its mouth to unleash a sound that was a cross between a roar and a belch. The smell it gave off was utterly revolting and enough to not only bring terror amongst the parents and children in the restaurant, but nausea as well.

While the parents and children all fled from the building with the employees, the Ghostbusters and their friends stayed behind, continuing to stare at the disgusting blob. Whereas the eyes of Spengler, Zeddemore, Christina, Alexis, Cody, Alex, and the Ajax exterminators were filled with shock, the eyes of Kimberly Venkman had nothing but intense hatred and anger in hers; she and this blob had quite an unsettling history that was difficult for her to forget, whenever she confronted a ghost as nasty as this one. Upon seeing him for the first time in four years, one word emerged from her mouth: "_YOU!_"

The blob looked directly at Kim and grumbled, apparently recognizing her; its glowing yellow eyes had a frightening effect on Mickey Mouse, who said, "Oh, boy! He sure looks like a mean one!"

"Don't worry." Sean uttered. "He won't hurt any of us."

"No, he'd just gross the constitution outta ya with his nasty ooze!" Kim sneered. "Look at the little spud! He's tauntin' me! Probably knows I'm gonna get him back for sliming me back at the hotel, four years ago!"

"Venkman, don't do _anything_." Spengler warned. "He knows you'll try something if you…"

_BBBBBBRRRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGGGG!_

The blob growled as it flew directly towards the group; it moved at a speed that was way faster than it had when Spengler and Venkman last saw it. There was barely enough time to move out of the way, as the blob came right at Kim; she opened her mouth instinctively to scream, but that was her last mistake as the creature phased right through the upper half of her body. A wave of slime went right into Kim's mouth while drenching the rest of her in it, even staining her clean Hoots shirt.

As soon as the blob had completely passed through her, Kim collapsed to the floor and immediately slipped into unconsciousness. Spengler knelt down near her inert, slimed body and checked her purse. "She's not breathing!" he exclaimed, which brought great concern over the others. Immediately, Sean began administering CPR on her, while the blob creature bellowed overhead, hovering around the ceiling and phasing through dangling plywood models of planets.

"I thought this thing wasn't gonna hurt anybody!" Alexis angrily yelled.

Spengler didn't have a direct answer for Alexis's confusion; even if he did, he was too busy trying to revive his best friend. Something about the slimy blob was far different from when they last encountered it. The readings on the P.K.E. were totally different from last time. From what he deciphered, it almost rested in a class close to one Gozer and Vigo were in. _It's too improbable to be true_, he thought.

Just then, another crash rang through the kitchen. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Cody, and Alex dashed over to the doors and opened them to see what was going on inside. Much to their surprise, there were four more ghosts causing havoc there in the kitchen; but these ones were different from the blob; they were more "cartoon-like" and highly familiar to Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.

"Oh, no!" Donald squawked.

"Gwarsh!" Goofy cried.

"Oh, gosh!" Mickey exclaimed.

These ghosts were the same _lonesome_ ones the exterminators squared off against all those years ago in that haunted house, during their first (and only) extermination. That much was obvious from the translucent bowler hats and cloaks the ghosts wore over their equally translucent forms. Like the blob, their forms were green, but only much paler. As soon as they spotted their old exterminator friends, the phantoms sneered, and their eyes turned red (something totally new to Mickey, Donald, and Goofy); they grabbed several kitchen utensils (including forks and knives) and hurled them directly at the mortals. Mickey and the others quickly departed from the room, just in time for the utensils to strike the doors instead with the knives and forks stuck right in them.

"Whoa! They were _never_ this mean before!" Mickey said with surprise.

"Wonder what's gotten into them." Goofy said.

"Whatever it is, I hope it goes away soon!" Alex pleaded.

The group soon found themselves running for their lives again as the four phantoms phased through the kitchen doors and howled at them, chasing them away to where the Ghostbusters were. Zeddemore, Christina, and Alexis noticed how they were being chased by more vicious ghosts and could barely believe how wild the situation was becoming.

Just after the exterminators, Cody, and Alex rejoined with the Ghostbusters, the four phantoms and the blob hovered close to one another, sixteen feet in the air, and glared at the group of mortals below. "They're working together?" Donald questioned.

"Seems that way," deduced Mickey.

Zeddemore shook her head at the sight above. "It can't be a coincidence that they're here at the exact same time we are."

"Another trick of Hades?" Alexis reckoned.

In response to Alexis, the blob and the phantoms bellowed in unison, "_YOU WISH!_" They started to lunge right at them, howling eerily in the process. At the same time, Venkman regained consciousness, coughing up huge amounts of slime. Quickly, Spengler turned her body sideways to let the ectoplasmic residue drain from her body, while he once again pulled out his P.K.E. Meter and aimed it right at the five approaching vapors. Flipping a small switch built in the back of the device, the winged arms had risen into a vertically paralleled position at the top of the P.K.E. Meter and emitted a shock wave of sonic energy that surrounded the attacking ghosts. The ghosts instantly came to a halt with their hands coming up to their "ears" and covering them from the high-pitched wailing noise that was unheard by human ears.

"What're you doing to them?" Alexis queried.

"Remember when I was fiddling with the meter back at Hoots?" Spengler responded with a question of his own. "I was actually upgrading a new feature to it: P.S.E. (Proton Shockwave Emitter). It affects their psycho-kinetic energy and submits them for at least twelve minutes."

Spengler flipped the switch again and removed the shock wave, allowing the ghosts to slowly descend to the floor, where they continued to howl in agony. As she watched them writhe in pain, Diana asked Sean, "You think twelve minutes is enough to grab some Packs and bust these jokers?"

Kim coughed up the last bit of ectoplasm in her mouth and stood on her feet, feeling angrier than ever. "I'll say it is!"

**END OF CHAPTER EIGHT**


	9. Reunited and It Feels So Slimy!

**Chapter Nine: Reunited and It Feels So…Slimy!**

J.G. Stantz was practically in heaven when he was around Vanessa; she brought out a side of him that he never knew existed – that affectionate, enchanting side he figured only came from Kimberly Venkman. Stantz was a scientist, not a lover; most of his time was spent studying theories on the supernatural. Then this wonderful woman came into his bookstore one sunny afternoon, told him how alluring he was, and asked if he would take her to dinner and movie.

_Incredible how that wasn't very long ago and now look at how far we've come_, he thought as he drove his Volvo V70 down the block with Vanessa there by his side. "The perfect car to drive the perfect girl in," he once said after owning it for a whole year.

"So where are we going to next, my sweet?" Vanessa asked him.

Jay smiled and answered, "It's my surprise."

"Oh, come, now." Vanessa remarked with a laugh. "Our relationship is supposed to be based on trust."

"Yes, and I know you trust me long enough to keep this a surprise." J.G. reversed, and the couple laughed happily. It was a nice thought to Jay, being a couple with Vanessa. When could he honestly say that he…?

_HONK! HONK!_

The Volvo came to a screeching halt as a monster of a traffic jam had built up a few or so blocks away from Times Square. It was right in front of Pizza Planet, and there were several NYPD personnel blocking off the area and trying to get everyone to their individual destinations as soon as possible.

"Love, what's going on?" Vanessa asked J.G.

Jay shrugged his shoulders, looking over the fleet of cars in their path. It was then that he spotted some familiar figures, running out of an alley and into the restaurant, undetected by the police. One of them he closely noticed was drenched in some kind of green liquid…and an unforgettable device strapped to her back. Stantz's eyes widened with a mixture of excitement and surprise. "Uh, baby? Could you stay here _para uno momento_?"

Vanessa watched him in confusion as he parked the Volvo and jumped out, heading straight towards Pizza Planet. J.G. made sure he was careful in not being detected by the authorities, who would've been sure to stop him the moment they spotted him. Stantz ducked and rolled between cars, being careful not to inhale the exhaust fumes while hiding behind them. The former Ghostbuster finally reached his destination, ducking into the shadows of the alley that the figures emerged from; he looked around the corner to see if there were any cops keeping an eye on the entranceway.

A large, heavy model of planet Earth suddenly crashed through the entrance and rolled into the path of the officers, forcing them to dodge out of the way. It was a crude and harmful distraction, but J.G. would take it if it meant getting into the restaurant unnoticed. He was just about to run out of the alleyway, until something snagged him from behind and held him back. Turning around to see what it was, he was all but surprised to see Christina Melnitz standing there and holding a Proton Pack.

"If you're plannin' on goin' in there, you're gonna need this." She told him.

J.G. smiled as he took the Proton Pack from her and put it on, getting that sense of nostalgia again. "Thanks, Chris." Fully equipped, he dashed around the corner and snuck inside the building, which had become a battleground in less than two minutes.

There his former teammates were, together again and squaring off against the same green, onion-headed ghost that they first busted back in the Tipton Hotel, along with four others in bowler hats and cloaks that he didn't recognize. Along with Venkman, Spengler, and Zeddemore was the "rookie" from the bookstore, showing off the same impressive moves; however, he suddenly noticed one amateur mistake she was about to make as she came close to where Kim was firing.

Immediately, he screamed, "DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!"

Their attention shifted to him at the exact moment he cried out, drawing focus away from the streams in the process. Moving away from the ghosts, the streams went near a set of cables that suspended a larger-than-life model of a space shuttle. The cables snapped and the model fell twenty feet towards the Ghostbusters, forcing them to duck for cover. The model crashed down upon the "play area," destroying all of the arcade games and the games of skill in one massive crash. While the Ghostbusters were distracted by the sudden destruction, the onion-head ghost and his friends disappeared from the area, phasing through the nearest wall with a series of cackles (and belches).

As soon as the chaos had passed, the Ghostbusters emerged from their individual hiding spots, totally unscathed; but, needless to say, they were shaken and upset. The team started to approach J.G., almost threateningly. Realizing the stupid mistake he made, a sheepish Jay uttered, "Sorry…my fault."

Kim moved more briskly than the others, and J.G. almost figured she was going to strike him as she raised her arm; but she did the opposite instead: give him a big hug. "Oh, you big oaf! How could I ever be mad at you?"

J.G. smiled and chuckled nervously as Kim let him go. "Man! You really had me goin' there! For a second, I thought you were gonna…" He stopped once he realized that the clean, pressed, and _white_ suit that he wore for his date with Vanessa was covered in the green slime that Kim was drenched in. "Hey!"

"What?" Kim said in mock innocence. "Can't a girl show an old friend a little love?"

J.G. glared at her while Spengler approached with his P.K.E. Meter still in hand. "You came back just in time. We've got a _serious_ problem here."

"How so?" J.G. queried. "They look like the same Class 5 free-roaming vapors to me."

"Only the P.K.E. is reading them as something higher…_way_ higher." Sean notified. "According to it, they're in the same class as Vigo the Carpathian."

"Really? Wow!" J.G. exclaimed with a bug-eyed expression on his face. "This sounds like a real breakthrough! An actual 'ecto-upgrade' of some type! This could be like the next stage in paranormal evolution!"

Witnessing this ridiculously geeky display from the two men, Kim and Diana both hung their heads and put their hands over them in frustration. Before it could've gone on any further, Diana finally walked right up to them and said, "I hate to break up your little 'fanatic moment,' but if you boys can take a minute to focus on this situa—"

A loud crash emerged from upstairs, followed by the sound of a woman screaming; quickly, the team headed in that direction, knowing their ghostly adversaries were terrorizing someone who couldn't make it out of the building on time; and they had to get to her before it was too late. The moment that the team reached the second floor, which was the level reserved for staff only, they were caught by surprise of the way it was designed. The wallpapers were fashioned to resemble constellations with alien planets around them and the doors to the offices, bathrooms, and closets were automatic and designed to look like something out of _Star Trek_.

"Okay, whoever runs this restaurant chain _needs_ to move out of his mom's basement." Kim bantered.

A growling noise emerged from the door straight ahead, which was labeled "manager/captain" and had the name "W. Brewster" printed above. Again, the scream was heard; but this time it confused the Ghostbusters rather than alarm them. Kim grinned as she asked Diana, "Isn't that your boss's office?"

"He's not my boss." Diana clarified. "He's just a client who I _was_ working for tonight."

"Well, hopefully, he won't mind if I do this." Kim aimed her Proton Gun and fired a quick stream, blasting away the door.

Diana and the others could barely believe she even had the nerve to do that, knowing the cost of damage. It wasn't like the old days when they could do whatever they wanted to catch the ghosts and the city would pay for the property damage; they weren't even supposed to have on their Proton Packs. It was pretty much a risky situation the team was taking, handling this situation like rogues. The group watched cautiously as dark gray smoke emerged from the wreckage; just as it had cleared, the onion-headed ghost and the other four phantoms flew out without warning. The Ghostbusters opened fire in the hallway, trying their hardest to capture the fast-moving vapors; they proved to be quite a challenge, leaving the team hitting nothing but wall and ceiling at every blast.

"Man! What're they on? Steroids for ghosts?" Diana yelled in annoyance.

Meanwhile, Kim's focus was solely on her old nemesis: the green, slimy spud that nearly killed her a while ago; between that and getting covered with slime, she had about enough of him. Although Kim's extreme rage blinded her from the fact that one of the bowler hat phantoms was approaching from behind. Before Venkman could even realize it, the vapor had grabbed the back of her shirt and hung it over her head.

"Hey! What the…?" The revolting specters began laughing insanely as Kim continued firing her stream, while totally blind. As it came over the heads of her teammates, they instantly ducked, not wanting to get their faces melted off.

With the blinded Venkman trapping everyone in her mania, the onion-head ghost and his companions took the opportunity to escape; however, just as they flew towards the starry wall, Kim's protonic steam came in contact with one of the bowler hat ghosts, capturing him. J.G. soon took notice of this unintentional success from Kim and triumphantly shouted, "You got him! You've got him!"

"Awesome!" Kim muffled through her shirt. "Wish I was there to _see_ it!"

J.G. detached the ghost trap from his Proton Pack and rolled it beneath the captured ghost that had apparently been abandoned by his "friends." "Just hold still and try to keep your stream leveled, Kim! I'm gonna open the trap on the count of three!"

"Oh, forget countin'! Just open the damn thing!" Kim retorted.

On her command, Stantz pressed down on the pedal switch with his right foot; the trap had opened, consuming the bowler hat phantom into it. The moment the ghost was trapped, Kim felt a great deal of slack given to her Proton Gun and was thrown back unexpectedly to the floor; sitting there, she removed her shirt from her head and gazed upon the smoking ghost trap a few feet away. "Did I get him?" She suddenly asked. "Did I get the spud?"

"No, it was one of those other creepies." J.G. confirmed while kneeling down to check for any scratches or bruises on her. "Are you okay?"

Venkman looked directly at him, noticeably angered and disgusted. "He slimed me, dude. I am _never_ gonna be okay, until I've kicked his ass for the second time in a row!" She then got to her feet, tightly gripped her Proton Gun, and ran back downstairs like a maniac.

"W-Wait! Venkman!" J.G. shouted as he and Spengler chased after her.

Alexis and Zeddemore remained where they were, watching the three parapsychologists as they left. "Wow. She's got a _real_ vendetta against that little 'slimer,' doesn't she?" Alexis stated, just as Zeddemore dashed into Mr. Brewster's slime-covered, ravaged office with Alexis soon following.

"Mr. Brewster?" Diana repeatedly called, but there was no answer. However, Mr. Brewster did slowly appear from behind his desk, covered in soot and his clothes slightly charred. Diana's hand went to her mouth when she saw him this way, knowing it was all because of Kim's reckless firing. "Sir, I am _so_ sorry about this. I promise that I'll pay for damages as soon as this crisis has been averted. You have my word on that."

Brewster attempted to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was a squeak. Diana exited from the room, catching up with the others. Before exiting herself, Alexis told Brewster, "Uh…nothing personal…but…if I was you, I'd consider having yourself checked out…because you _really_ sounded like a woman from downstairs, dude." Brewster couldn't come up with a response to that, still being scared speechless.

Alexis ran out of the tattered office and headed downstairs, only to have been met with a bright reddish-orange beam of energy that struck her body and paralyzed every inch of it. As she tried to move, she noticed how her teammates were in the same situation, their forms all shrouded by reddish-orange energy waves and standing paralyzed near the flight of stairs. Looking straight ahead, she saw the onion-head ghost and the three remaining bowler hat phantoms hovering in the air and doing…nothing; they just hovered there with mindless expressions on their faces, and their eyes glowed in a deep, dark reddish color.

_What the hell is wrong with them_, Alexis thought.

Her answer suddenly came as a dark form materialized in a puff of bright red smoke beneath the ghosts. Once the smoke cleared, Jafar appeared with his golden, cobra-headed staff in hand and his pet parrot/sidekick, Iago, perched (as always) on shoulder; there was a sinister grin on his face, as he glared over the five of them.

"Foolish simpletons! Indeed, the mighty have fallen!" Jafar exclaimed. "I knew controlling these foul-natured spirits would lure you all right into my trap…especially _you_, Dr. Stantz!" J.G. grunted in anger, still trying to get free of Jafar's hold over him. "It's all part of Hades' plan to do away with you. Assist the ridiculous 'fan girl' and her impotent friends in reuniting the Ghostbusters and destroy them all under one roof. It's so brilliant and yet so…"

"Oh, will ya just shut up and kill them already!" Iago interjected. "Geez, the more time you spend flappin' yer gums, the more chances that something might go horribly wrong!"

Jafar cackled. "Come now, Iago. What could possibly happen? The Ghostbusters are at our mercy, we have the most chaotic ghosts in our control, and Hades' master plan is only minutes away from coming into fruition. Not even the most ignorant _goof_ can foul things up for us now!"

Directly after Jafar proudly made his declaration, Goofy ran right into the restaurant with Donald and Mickey following. "Don't worry, team! We got yer ba—" That was when Goofy suddenly slipped on a slice of pepperoni pizza and began sliding extremely fast towards Jafar and Iago. "YAAAAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!"

Jafar turned his attention to the goof a little too late as he was already a few feet close to him when he lifted his arms in a protective manner and screamed, "Oh, no!"

"Oh, boy! Here it comes!" Iago screeched.

Goofy's body smacked hard against Jafar's, causing both him and Iago to collapse with the goof, while Jafar's staff flew out of his hand and soared several feet across the air. The eyes of the Ghostbusters, the only thing that wasn't in a paralyzed state, watched the staff as it descended towards a wall and finally crashed into it, breaking into many pieces.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jafar cried.

This, of course, wasn't much surprise to Iago. "What did I tell ya, man?"

At the exact moment Jafar's staff had shattered, the Ghostbusters were free from its hold as were the four ghosts, who were (needless to say) puzzled over what was going on. Noticing this, the Ghostbusters took advantage of it and immediately fired their particle streams upon the ghosts. Considering that they were no longer under Jafar's control, it was easy for the team to capture the ghosts in the streams since they were the same out-of-shape specters as before.

Sean threw in his ghost trap for the final blow and activated it to suck all four ghosts into it at the same time. The Ghostbusters shut off their Proton Guns and sighed in relief as they approached the ghost trap with Mickey and Donald. "Now that was hardcore!" Diana exclaimed while J.G. picked up the smoking ghost trap and then shared a high-five with her.

"Just like the good ol' days!" Stantz said.

Jafar scoffed at the victorious group as Goofy was sitting on top of him and Iago, pinning them to the floor. "Enjoy your win while you can, Ghostbusters. Hades isn't far from executing his plan."

"Tell us right now, Jafar!" Mickey demanded. "What's Hades' plan?"

"Yeah!" Donald bellowed. "And what've you gotta do with it?"

Jafar cackled. "I'll tell you fools nothing!"

Kim walked right up and aimed her particle thrower at his face with the intense humming sound from her Proton Pack adding to the intimidation. Instinctively, Iago screeched, "WE _REALLY_ DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! HADES DIDN'T TELL US DIDDILY SQUAT!" Jafar glared at his timid and foolish pet parrot, who might as well have been born as a stool pigeon.

The team exchanged confused looks upon hearing this. "I don't get it," said J.G. "Why would he leave you guys in the dark like that? Aren't you major benefactors in his plan?"

"The deal was to reunite and destroy you all in exchange for ruling the entire Middle East under Hades' 'New Underworld'." Jafar revealed. "Other than that deal, he did not tell us how he intended on making it happen."

Spengler scratched his chin in a ponderous manner. "So he _is_ intending on merging the realm of the dead with our world." His eyes then widened behind his thin glasses while adding, "But if something like that were to be attempted, then it could put _both_ worlds in imminent danger."

A worried look crept across J.G.'s face in reaction to Spengler's hypothesis. "Oh, man! You're right, Spengs."

Kim, Diana, and Alexis all looked confused; it was Alexis who then had asked to ease the confusion, "What? What're you guys talking about?"

Before either J.G. or Sean could explain, they all had heard each of their names being called out by a group of people. Turning their heads to where the voices were coming from, they noticed Christina, Cody, and Alex running into the now-demolished restaurant with panic registered on their faces.

"Jay!" Christina cried. "Someone's taking her away!"

J.G.'s ears perked, and his eyes registering a state of alarm; he didn't have to bother asking who it was that Christina was talking about. Without alerting the others first, he dashed out of the restaurant, not worrying about catching the attention of the NYPD officers outside. It had taken Kim, Sean, Diana, and Alexis only a few seconds to realize that Christina was referring to Vanessa.

"Who was taking her away?" Sean asked.

"Some taxi driver," answered Alex.

"Yeah, and he had _yellow_ eyes, too!" Cody added.

Soon after Cody's mentioning of it, one name uttered from the mouths of Kim, Sean, and Alexis: "Maleficent!" They were soon out of the restaurant themselves, leaving a confused Diana to deal with the mess they were leaving behind.

"Why am I always the one who gets left out of the _major_ stuff?"

"Don't worry, Miss Zeddemore." Mickey said. "We'll take care of everything here, including handing Jafar over to the authorities."

Diana smiled at the mouse and her other friends. "Thanks for everything, guys. You've all been such a great help. I wish there was some way to repay you for your dedication."

"Just kick some ghost booty for us, will ya?" Christina requested.

Diana tightened her grip on the Proton Gun and grinned. "No problem."

As Zeddemore departed from the ravaged Pizza Planet, Jafar and Iago both grumbled in despair. "Ya think the 'Three Strikes' rule counts for evil sorcerers and talking parrots, too?" Iago inquired, and Jafar's only response was a raspberry to the parrot's face.

**END OF CHAPTER NINE**


	10. Two Souls Are Better Than One

**Chapter Ten: Two Souls Are Better Than One**

The moon looked bold and bright in the ominous black sky. From the roof of the Tipton Hotel, Hades knew just from looking at it that this was the perfect evening to take over the world. The only problem was…how was he going to do it? He knew he should've asked the Fates what it was that they tried to warn him about. Maybe it had something to do with how he conquers everything, or maybe they were trying to alert him of any possible threats…like the Ghostbusters. That'd be impossible, because they were supposed to be destroyed before Hades became ruler; that was, if Jafar got the job done right.

All of these suspicions and thoughts made Hades feel extremely agitated. There were many ways this "master plan" could go right and many ways it could go wrong. It was one of the things that he hated about having overseers as advisors. Why couldn't he have turned to someone a little _less_ psychic? Like John Edwards?

"Uh, Hades?" He heard Panic call out for him. Just what he needed: one of his idiotic minions bugging him while lost in thought. "Did we give any of these soon-to-be-slaved mortals permission to come up here?"

Hades' eyes scrunched up over the oddity of the question as he turned to face his minions. "What're you morons talkin' abo…?" He stopped as soon as he saw a scruffy-looking man with _familiar_ yellow eyes on the rooftop with a beautiful brunette that he had one hand roughly clinging on to. The brunette looked frightened and struggled under the man's grip; but, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't escape from him. "O.K., I'm not the one to butt into anyone's personal business, but if you two have marital problems, I suggest goin' to _Maury_ about it."

"I need you, Hades." The scruffy-looking man articulated.

The face of the Lord of the Dead registered a huge sense of awkwardness. "Alright…now I'm suggesting _Jerry Springer_."

The man's other hand was hiding behind his back the whole time he was facing Hades; when he finally stuck it out, he revealed himself to be holding a staff with a green orb at the tip. "It'd be an impossible task to execute. But with my powers near complete rejuvenation, it should not be _too_ difficult."

Hades was still puzzled over whom this stranger was and what he was babbling about; however, that staff he was holding looked very familiar. Now that he thought of it, that woman he brought along with him looked familiar herself. "Listen…whatever ya want, buddy, you sure ain't gonna find it up here."

"On the contrary, Hades," the man said before pointing the tip of the staff towards the Lord of the Dead, "Everything here is _exactly_ what I want."

The flames on Hades' body grew as he glared at the man. "This is _my_ moment of glory, not yours…Maleficent."

The man grinned, tightening his grip on the staff, which slightly glowed at the tip. "I suppose there is no need to lengthen this ridiculous charade. So let us 'cut to the chase,' as these mortals say today." He let go of the woman in his grasps, and she surprisingly remained where she was, not making any attempt whatsoever to escape. "Gods can be just as inhabitable as mortals for powerful spirits like me. They are also incredible boosts of energy…_rare_ energy for ghosts."

Hades chuckled. "Please. Okay? If you think that _this_ body can be possessed by some storybook flunky, then you're gravely mista—"

A long, familiar black tentacle suddenly wrapped around his body and squeezed him so tight that it prevented him from flaming up or even phasing. It was not any normal tentacle; it belonged to Ursula, who was posing as the woman Maleficent brought with her; the tentacle stuck out from under the long dark blue evening gown she wore in her human form. Hades tried to verbally assault her, but he found it extremely difficult to talk while being squeezed into the form of an hourglass.

Ursula crossed her arms and grinned at the subdued god of the underworld. "What do you say now, Hades?" It was Ursula talking, but the voice was masked itself to match the rest of the appearance. "Is this better than what you intended?" She squeezed harder and Hades squawked in pain. "I told you that I deserved some payback for rescuing your pathetic _afterlife_. And now I'm going to get it…through Maleficent."

The eyes of Hades darted from Ursula to Maleficent, whose eyes and mouth began to glow in a bright yellowish hue through the taxi driver's body. A haze of ghostly energy then seeped out, hovered through the air, and entered into the open mouth of Hades. The underworld god's mouth and eyes then glowed themselves, as did the rest of his body, which Ursula removed her grasp over soon afterwards; it flamed up again, only this time the fire wasn't orange or blue—it was a bizarre shade of green.

Nathaniel, the once-possessed taxi driver, was on the verge of collapsing; but Ursula's tentacle wrapped around his waist and propped him up, long enough for Maleficent (in Hades' body) to walk up and take her staff from his hands. As she held the staff in Hades' chilling blue hands, the green orb at the tip glowed brighter than it ever had before. The unimaginable was happening: a god possessed by a spirit. It was enough to be something greater than even Zeus himself—should _he_ ever try to stop her. Then again, her powers had always gone unnoticed by the gods with the obvious exception of Hades; it was that dark link she had to him that made him such a suitable subject for this possession.

"You should have listened to the Fates, Hades." Maleficent advised, her regular voice like an echo overlapping his. "They tried to tell you that it just wasn't you controlling this realm. It was both of us…together."

Maleficent looked towards Hades' throne, which Pain and Panic were cowering behind, after witnessing the possession; she focused on them while approaching it, her staff like a lantern guiding her through the eerie darkness. It was Panic who (living up to his name) broke down and cried out for mercy. "Don't hurt us! Please!"

Pain had done just the same soon after him. "We'll do anything! We're not _completely_ useless!"

The face of Hades reflected Maleficent's amusement over these minions' pathetic pleas. "No…you're not," she said.

Suddenly, the small, frail bodies of Pain and Panic glowed in a bright greenish color as they were lifted off the floor; they squirmed to no avail, but they soon weren't moving at all, once their arms and legs began to turn into hard, cold stone. The two minions screamed while the rest of their bodies turned to rock; when their mouths finally transformed, their screams were silenced. They resembled gargoyles—_scared_ gargoyles—in the current state they were in. If they were still conscious of what happened to them, then they were undoubtedly still crying in pain. With the power of her staff, Maleficent set the stoned figures at the edge of the rooftop where they faced the entire New York skyline.

After Hades' minions were taken care of, Ursula turned to the taxi driver she had been propping up with her tentacle. "What shall we do with this one?"

Maleficent looked at the man and sneered upon him. "Dispose of him in any way you see fit. He's no longer any use to us."

"There's only one way to _truly_ dispose of human filth like this," said Ursula, who then afterwards tossed the man over the edge, sending him falling several stories to his death.

Not once acknowledging the evil act committed by the Sea Witch, Maleficent kept her focus solely on Hades' throne. Standing right in front of it, she raised her staff high above Hades' head and then, with incredible force, jabbed it directly into the throne. "Tonight…a new era begins," she said, as the throne and everything else on the Tipton Hotel's rooftop began to glow in a greenish hue.

* * *

"You know, there are a million taxi drivers all around New York City," said an impatient Kimberly Venkman. "How do we intend on finding one with yellow eyes and the personality of Joan Crawford?"

J.G. wasn't listening to a word that Kim was saying; he was too heavily focused on the road and each individual taxicab that they passed by. "_¡Ah, mi Dios! ¡Espera, mi amor! ¡Vengo!_" The others in the Volvo exchanged awkward glances as he talked to himself in Spanish.

"What did he say?" Alexis inquired.

"Something about loving pizza…I dunno!" Kim remarked.

Stantz made a hard left turn at the next corner, causing his passengers to have their faces pressed up against the windows. Several passing vehicles honked at him in the process as he nearly collided head-on with them. Once they were steady on the road again, the others unstuck their faces from the window and frowned at J.G.

"Jay! Relax, man!" Diana exclaimed. "Your girlfriend isn't the only thing at stake here, alright? In case you've forgotten, Hades is only minutes away from wiping out our entire universe."

J.G. took a deep breath. "I know. O.K.? She…She's the best thing that ever came into my life." He heard Kim scoffing behind him and, needless to say, was greatly offended. "You know, you guys just don't get what it's like to be _truly_ in love with some—"

_CRASH!_

As they were passing through the Tipton Hotel, the body of a man crashed on top of a vehicle, causing it to swerve out of control and collide with two parked cars. Witnessing this dreadful accident first-hand, J.G. slammed on the brakes and stopped the Volvo in the middle of the street, just as other vehicles had done the same. A massive traffic jam was formed in less than a second, several cars honking at one another; and in the center of it all were the Ghostbusters, who climbed out of the Volvo and looked high up at the Tipton complex.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" Kim bellowed.

At the very top of the building, there was an ominous green glow of light that started to spread to the rest of the building. Thick thorns formed around the building, some coming out through windows and looping over others. The people inside the hotel ran out in panic over this strange occurrence, gathering with the crowd that had already assembled on the street.

Mr. Moseby, Maddie, London, Carey, Arwin, and Zack were one of the many that had made it out. Alexis noticed them almost immediately and got a strong sense of déjà vu. This whole incident was just a reminiscent of the one in 2004 with the arrival of Gozer; the only major difference was the green glow and the bundles of thorns shrouded around the building.

"No doubt this is where our gal, Maleficent, is hiding." Kim deduced before reaching into the Volvo for her Proton Pack and putting it on. "Well, team, we've been through this song and dance before."

"Yeah, only this time it's a different tune." Diana added as she, Spengler, Stantz, and Alexis placed their Proton Packs on also. "I still say we should get out of dodge, while we've still got our lives."

Kim shook her head and grinned. "Four years of being a Ghostbuster and you _still_ wanna chicken out? You're no fun anymore." Diana gave her a dirty look while detaching her particle thrower from the pack.

"Well, I'm not chickening out of this." J.G. boldly declared. "That flame-headed bastard is keeping Vanessa up there, and I intend on getting her out, safe and unharmed."

Sean aimed his P.K.E. Meter towards the thorn-shrouded Tipton Hotel and the levels he got from it were way higher than the usual ones he received from Maleficent. He could only deduce that the extra amounts of psycho-kinetic energy came from the thorns themselves. "Those thorns are wracked with _strong_, and presumably _negative_, waves of P.K.E.," he informed.

"Let's just skip all the small talk and blast it away, shall we?" Kim suggested, already aiming her particle thrower at the front entrance.

The others did the same and, without notice, fired at the thorns shrouding the entrance, which brought great amazement out from the nearby onlookers, who were witnessing the first act of heroism from the team in a whole year. Their streams hit the thorns for minutes, but not a single one dented, scratched, or snapped on impact. After a few seconds more, the Ghostbusters turned to each other and shook their heads, signaling for a ceasefire. They switched off their throwers in defeat and gazed upon the smoking thorns that continued to shroud the entrance.

Now this was starting to resemble the 2007 incident at the Museum of Natural History with Vigo the Carpathian as he covered the entire museum in an impenetrable shell made out of slime. Alexis seriously doubted if Lady Liberty could save them from this situation. "This is quite a catastrophe, man!" she commented.

"There's gotta be _some_ way to penetrate these thorns." J.G. implored.

Alexis walked right up to the blocked entrance, closely studying the thorns. "What if we just climbed up them?"

"I'd highly decide against making physical contact with them, Alexis." Spengler remarked.

"Yeah, especially with no gloves." Kim added.

"Oh, it's easy." Alexis stated. "Just avoid the areas on the branches that have…" As she reached up to grab one of the branches to prove her point, she was suddenly stricken by a thorn, leaving a bleeding gash right across her left palm. "Ah, shoot!"

The others ran up to check on her, J.G. being the first one to approach her with more concern than he had been showing the past hours over his girlfriend. "You okay?" he asked.

"Hurts like hell, but I'm cool." Alexis acknowledged, slightly wincing as J.G. pulled a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wrapped it around her wound.

Suddenly, they heard a weird pulsing noise and felt a tremendous quake beneath their feet as the Tipton building unleashed a wave of psycho-kinetic energy all throughout the entire city. In mere seconds, it was all illuminated in the same greenish hue that covered the Tipton; the only exceptions were the citizens of New York, who stood out from the eerie shade of the color; however, it wasn't for very long. One by one, the eyes of the New York citizens (including the residents of the Tipton Hotel) glowed green themselves, falling under the spell created by Maleficent; their bodies went rigid and their fists clenched as they walked like zombies towards Alexis and the Ghostbusters; Alexis's eyes widened in horror upon seeing the eerie display with her teammates.

"We've gotta get out of here." She suggested. "We've gotta get away, before they…" She suddenly felt herself being restrained and realized that Venkman, Spengler, Stantz, and Zeddemore were individually clasping onto both of her arms. Before she could inquire as to what they were doing, she realized that their eyes were glowing just like everyone else. _They're under her spell,_ she thought in despair as she struggled under their heavy grasps.

As the cursed New York citizens came closer, Alexis devised the best plan of action she could. Since her legs weren't subdued like her arms, she stomped on each of the Ghostbusters' feet, causing them to instantly release their hold over her. She then dashed in the direction that the cursed people weren't blocking, running away from the haunted area. They followed after her, some of them running themselves to avoid losing track of her. It was interesting to Alexis that, despite being influenced by Maleficent's power, these people still had some common sense in them.

While running for her life, she thought about something even more bizarre about all of this: the fact that she wasn't under the spell. At first she had no good deduction for it; but, as she felt the unbearable pain in her hand, she began to wonder if getting cut from the thorn made her immune to Maleficent's power. If that would be the case, then it might as well be considered a setback in her plans…or a backup, in case a mortal were to come in contact with them. Whatever the case might've been, she was the only being left unaffected by the supernatural outbreak.

For a quick second, she looked back to see how far she was able to distance herself from her pursuers. Ironically, it was only the Ghostbusters that were closing in on her. From Alexis's standpoint, they were the healthiest people in the city. _Maybe all those years of ghost-busting makes a body good_, she thought. Even though this was looking hopeless by the minute, Alexis actually did have a plan formulating in her head, and it involved getting her teammates' heads back on straight. She only hoped her legs wouldn't turn to spaghetti before she could reach what was left of the firehouse.

**END OF CHAPTER TEN**


	11. Why Can’t We Be Friends?

**Chapter Eleven: Why Can't We Be Friends?**

By the time she reached the streets that had intersected the Ghostbusters' firehouse headquarters, Alexis was drenched in her own sweat; her heart was practically beating through her ribcage, and her pulse was racing faster than a horse at a track. She was on the verge of regurgitating, and a great deal of numbness overwhelmed her legs; but, despite all the strain she went through getting there, she couldn't give up, especially with her cursed teammates gaining on her. The firehouse was still partially intact with the exception of the front entrance having a massive gaping hole in it. The only area that Alexis was concerned about at the moment was the basement where the "Containment System" and the secret compartment opened by Christina were located (the latter being her primary focus).

_BOOONNNNGGGGSSSSHHHH!_

Two particle streams suddenly zapped over her head and connected with the side of the firehouse, taking out huge chunks of brick and concrete. It appeared that their "Ghostbuster Instincts" were beginning to kick into high gear, and they were using them on her. If those streams hurt the ghosts they busted, then she could only imagine how much damage it could do to a human being. This situation was proving itself to be more vicious and deadly by the second.

Dodging another fierce blast of energy fired from J.G. Stantz's Proton Pack, Alexis crawled into the ravaged firehouse. She pushed through lots of debris to get to the staircase leading to the basement; unfortunately, when she was just a few feet from it, four particle streams cut her off, and she nearly got her face burnt from one. She turned to her right and saw the possessed Ghostbusters standing on a massive pile of rubble, aiming their throwers directly at her.

"End of the line, rookie!" J.G. exclaimed, his voice eerily overlapped by Maleficent's.

"Your ass is ours!" Kim added with a sinister grin on her face and voice also overlapped by Maleficent's.

It was frightening for her to realize that their subconscious was amalgamated with the wicked persona of Maleficent, turning them into the perfect slaves; this must've been how _every_ possessed citizen of New York turned out after the "plague." If that were so, then pretty much everything did depend on her at the moment. New York City needed the Ghostbusters now more than ever to save it from this remarkable threat. The unlicensed nuclear accelerators on their backs hummed with intensity stronger than usual. Alexis would like to think they were currently charged with evil, ghostly energy to make them a thousand times more powerful. Whatever the case, she was going to be the main target of its power, unless she got out of dodge immediately.

_BOOONNNNGGGGSSSSHHHH!_

The instant that the streams came, Alexis was already airborne, diving to the staircase rather than running to there. The particle streams whizzed all around her soaring body, but neither of them made any contact. One, however, got close enough to burn right across the upper half of her right sleeve, disintegrating the Ghostbusters logo patched on there and leaving a gaping hole that showed unscathed flesh.

Although Alexis was left unharmed by the streams, the fall she had taken down the staircase was enough to wrack her body in pain; it was the sacrifice she took to avoid the Ghostbusters' streams, choosing bruises over third-degree burns graciously. By the time she hit the bottom of the stairs, she could barely believe that she was even still alive. After getting cut on the hand, running fifty blocks, nearly having been set on fire, and falling down a flight of stairs, she hoped to God that there was something in that secret compartment that would bring her teammates out of their possession. She heard footsteps approaching the top of the staircase and quickly got to her feet, wincing over the slightest move she had taken. While she dashed over to the squared, well-carved hole straight ahead, the Ghostbusters were already climbing down the stairs, their Proton Guns firmly gripped in their hands. If this _did_ turn out to be Alexis Embers' last stand, what a fitting place for it than in front of the "Containment System" where all of the ghosts captured by the team met their demise.

Alexis collapsed as soon as she had reached the hole, exhausted and pain rapidly taking over. Looking right inside it for some glimmer of hope, the only thing she found was a Slime Blower, the same device completed with a metal tank and sprayer that projected the psychomagnetheric "mood slime" used against Vigo the Carpathian. She was familiar with this device and its effects after witnessing Jafar's reaction to it while being placed under arrest in the aftermath of the Museum of Natural History incident; it was a sure bet to Alexis that it was the key to curing the Ghostbusters.

"Prepare for eradication, Alexis!" She heard Spengler say, not daring herself to turn around to see how close they were; but they had to be _pretty_ close, considering the fact that she felt the intense heat of the Packs seeping her way.

Her hand was already on the Slime Blower's sprayer as the Ghostbusters had her cornered. "You guys wanna know the best part about this job to me?"

"Eh…no, not really," answered Kim.

Ignoring her response, Alexis provided one of her own. "It's all the slime you want!" And with that, she twirled around as fast as she could and unleashed a geyser of mood slime their way. The pressure was almost as high as a fire hose and enough to push all four of the Ghostbusters back, knocking them down on the floor. Once she realized that they had (literally) slipped into unconsciousness, Alexis immediately shut off the sprayer.

The Ghostbusters were sprawled across the slimy puddle on the floor, their clothes practically drenched in the mood slime. For a moment, Alexis feared that she might've killed them, seeing how inert their forms were; but then she noticed J.G.'s arm move and Diana lifting herself off the wet floor. Soon all four of them were on their feet with their eyes still closed, due to the slime that was covering them. Alexis kept the sprayer still aimed directly at them, in case those eyes were still glowing green once they were opened.

After wiping slime away from them, the Ghostbusters opened their eyes to reveal their individual eye colors. Alexis smiled, feeling a wonderful sense of relief that she was able to break the spell with the Slime Blower; however, she didn't quite expect what happened afterwards when Kim opened her mouth and started joyfully singing:

"_Hello world, here's a song that we're singin'…_"

And then the other three joined in, adding a psychedelic dance to it:

"_Come on, get happy! A whole lotta lovin' is what we'll be bringin'…We'll make you happyyyyyyy!_"

Seeing this incredibly odd display, Alexis almost wished that she had her cell phone with her to capture it on video and (maybe) put it on _YouTube_; she could see the million hits right now on a video aptly titled "The Partridge Busters." The best she could've done was depend on her photographic memory and try to keep this incident to herself.

* * *

Some quick showers were the best remedy for snapping the Ghostbusters out of their happy moods; they had to burn their slime-drenched clothes for the sake of avoiding ectoplasmic contamination, according to Sean Spengler; this forced them to wear their old uniforms stored in the lockers, a choice they welcomed graciously. Kim, whose uniform was being worn in a tattered and somewhat odorous manner by Alexis, had to pull out her spare one, which she always kept hanging next to the other in the case of a messy bust (something that occurred all too often). Putting these old uniforms on again brought back that sense of nostalgia that they each had been feeling for the past days; only this time it was much greater, almost as if they had never given up being Ghostbusters, and it was all thanks to Alexis, this one special young woman who brought them back together to stop the threat that now loomed over them.

While gathered in the ravaged garage area, the Ghostbusters surveyed all of the damages, including those done to the Ecto-1. "Eh, it was getting to be a piece of junk anyway," noted Diana, who gave a slight kick on one of the front tires.

"Even if it was, we sure had a lot of fun driving it around." Kim stated.

"What do you mean 'we?'" Diana asked her. "It was _me_ who did most of the driving."

Kim grinned. "Hence the reason it was so much fun."

Diana shook her head at Venkman as they joined up with the others, who were gathered together in Kim's office nearby. On her desk was the Slime Blower device, which was being inspected by Spengler; he sat there with Alexis standing right next to him. Meanwhile, J.G. was at the corner of the room and staring off into space, no doubt thinking about Vanessa.

"Excellent idea on using the Slime Blower to break the spell, Alexis," complimented Sean. "It amazes me that Maleficent's power had no effect on it whatsoever. Its positive charge of ectoplasm could possibly have something to do with it."

"It was nothin'." Alexis sheepishly remarked. "Any of you guys would've done the same thing, if you were in my position."

"Exactly the point," said Kim. "It took thinkin' like a _real_ Ghostbuster to save our asses like you did, Rookie." Sean and Diana both nodded in agreement with Venkman, and Alexis blushed and smiled. "Don't you think so, Jay?"

All heads turned to Stantz, who didn't respond to Kim's question at all; he still continued to focus on the floor, his mind drifting off on what could be happening to Vanessa at this point in time. Alexis noticed the concern on his face, as well as the anger and fear of losing the love of his life; she wished there was something she could've told him to help make the anger and fear go away. Even if she could at the moment, he wouldn't have let her have the chance as he abruptly asked Spengler, "Is the Blower what we need to break through those defenses?"

Sean was caught off guard for a moment, expecting J.G. to at least acknowledge Alexis's success also. "The positive charge of the slime makes it a powerful weapon against _any_ evil, including Maleficent. It's also enough to break the spell over everyone else."

Briskly nodding his head, J.G. picked up his Proton Pack and strapped it on. "Then let's not waste time making comments. We've got a world to save." He was already making his way towards the exit, not choosing to wait on his teammates to get prepared.

Sighing in despair over their friend's reckless behavior, Kim and Diana picked up their own Packs and strapped them on. As they followed J.G. out of the firehouse, Kim walked up to Alexis, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said, "And this is why I never take _my_ relationships too seriously." With a wink and a smile, she dashed right out of the headquarters.

Alexis prepared herself for departure as well until Sean stood up and addressed her. "Before we leave, I have to give you something." He headed over to his locker and opened it, pulling out a large chest. Entering the combination on the lock that kept it securely shut, he opened the chest to reveal what had been kept inside for a whole year: **a highly-advanced Proton Pack, equipped with devices that combined all of the equipment used by the Ghostbusters, including the Slime Blower**.

Gazing upon this Proton Pack that was more supped up than the others, Alexis almost felt like a technological geek at a _Sharper Image_ store. "Oh, shit! What is this?"

"You remember when I said how we were going to need powerful tools to fight otherworldly forces like Maleficent?" Sean inquired, before patting the advanced Proton Pack. "This is precisely what we need."

Alexis shook her head and smiled. "Why didn't you mention this after we first met back in the college?"

"Because I never quite tested its functions once I finished work on it." Spengler replied. "A day after its completion, the Mayor had shut down our business."

"Well, I'd say now is a better time than any to put it to the test."

She was about to pick the machine up from the chest, but Sean had gotten to it before her, quickly and yet cautiously lifting it out. "Alexis, I feel it's in my duty as not just a Ghostbuster or a scientist but a human being to inform you of the extreme risk you'd be taking when using this device."

"With all due respect, Dr. Spengler, I already know about the whole 'Not Crossing the Streams' thing."

"It's more than just that. The levels of protonic energy in this Pack are higher than the others. Even two minutes of firing a particle stream will possibly eradicate every living molecule within sixteen feet."

Alexis's eyes widened in caution over this information; here it was – the most powerful defense against Maleficent and every other supernatural force in their way – and the only con to using it would be death. It didn't seem quite so fair; but what more could she expect from a situation like the one they were currently in? Maleficent needed to be stopped; if that meant sacrificing her life and (possibly) the lives of others, then so be it. She only hoped that it really would be just _her_ life that would be on the line. Compared to these great heroes of New York City, she was just another schmuck off the streets, wanting to be part of the in-crowd more than anything else. If she died tonight, then not very many people would care.

"I knew the risks comin' into this, Dr. Spengler." She admitted. "I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some _little_ setback like this keep me from doing what I've gotta do to save this world."

Sean nodded, still feeling unsure about handing this responsibility over to her; he was just glad that she had the true spirit of a Ghostbuster to take it head-on. While handing the advanced Proton Pack over to her, he instructed, "Just keep it on the Slime Blower setting and you'll be fine. And if you _do_ happen to use the Proton setting, keep your blasts _very_ brief."

Alexis strapped the machine to her back, surprised that it wasn't nearly as heavy as the other Packs were, despite the additional functions it had. Detaching the particle thrower from it, she flipped the switch and it hummed stronger and deeper than the average Proton Pack. "Let's do this," she said with an intense determination registered on her face.

**END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN**


	12. Who Ya Gonna Call?

**Chapter Twelve: Who Ya Gonna Call?**

The sky was an endless wave of blackness as the clouds formed and green lightning struck across them, hitting the Tipton rooftop most of the time. With all of New York glowing in a greenish hue and its citizens roaming around like mindless zombies, it really turned out to be an extraordinarily eerie scene. To top it all off, a strange purple vortex was forming right above the Tipton Hotel, growing exponentially by the second. Near the building's entrance, all of the residents of the Tipton and New York were still gathered together, guarding every inch of the front; they all had their mouths gaped open, letting saliva ooze down the side of them, and were looking upward at the huge purple mist swirling above. And then, they heard the voice of a very sarcastic woman.

"Housekeeping!"

When they simultaneously turned their heads, a massive stream of peach-colored slime flooded them, coming directly from the Proton Gun/Sprayer of Alexis Embers' Proton Pack. She stood parallel with her teammates, spraying every single person blocking their path to the thorn-shrouded entrance of the Tipton. By the time she was done, they were all lying on the ground in a large puddle of ooze.

"Let's go!" Kim ordered before they carefully stepped over the downed citizens, who slowly picked themselves up afterwards.

Once they reached the Tipton entrance, Alexis activated the Slime Blower feature of the Pack again, covering every thorn with the mood slime. The thorns dripped with it for moments until suddenly dissolving right before the very eyes of the Ghostbusters; they smiled, feeling extremely pleased to know that the slime could work as a counter-effect to Maleficent's evil magic. The team went through the revolving doors and into the abandoned lobby, some parts of which had been covered with thorns. Venkman eyeballed the elevators, which had been practically disabled from the enormous wave of thorns that busted through them. "Why is it that _every_ time a supernatural event hits this place we're forced to take the stairs?"

"It'd be best that we didn't, even if they were available." Sean advised. "Maleficent has control of every part of this building." He ran his P.K.E. Meter through the thorns that covered parts of the lobby. "These thorns function primarily as surveillance rather than security."

"So Maleficent can see our every move?" Alexis inquired. "That could only mean she knows we're already here."

"No doubt she saw us coming a mile away." Diana presumed. "Probably expected our company."

"Well, then I wonder if she can see _this_ coming three feet in her face!" Kim took off her Proton Pack and walked over to one bushel of thorns with her back facing it.

Diana was confused over what Kim was doing at first until noticing how she started unzipping her flight suit. "Oh, Venkman! C'mon! We don't have time for 'moonlighting'!"

"Diana, if there's a possible chance we don't make it out of this one alive, I want this 'moon' to be the last thing this bitch sees." Just as Venkman was on the verge of pulling down her flight suit, the lights in the lobby and the rest of the building suddenly went off. Everything went pitch black and forced the Ghostbusters to each switch on flashlights that were attached to one of the straps holding up their Packs. Kim was the only exception as he zipped her uniform back up and put her Proton Pack on again. "Guess she can't take a joke."

J.G. shined a light over every portion of the room, hoping to find the door to the stairwell; and then, out of nowhere, he came across one eerie-looking door that was wooden and had a semi-oval shape with the face of a goblin carved in. It was conveniently left untouched by the bushels of thorns that covered the lobby. "Hey," Stantz finally alerted his teammates on the discovery. "I've got something here." The others shined their lights over the strange door that appeared out of nowhere. "Looks like you were right about Maleficent expecting us, Diana."

"Yeah, she made it easy for us to get to her." Alexis indicated.

"I wouldn't rule out the possibility of this being a trap." Sean stated.

"Well, why else would she place a door here for us?" Kim asked.

J.G. was already making his way towards it. "I don't care about the specifics of its existence! All I care about is getting Vanessa back!" Once he approached the door, he quickly realized there were no handles on it; this, of course, brought out a great deal of anger. He pounded heavily on it and screamed, "YOU LET US IN, YOU WITCH! GIVE ME BACK MY GIRLFRIEND!"

The pounding continued until there was a sudden rumbling noise. Slowly, the door began to open upwards and an intensely bright white light entered the dark room. The Ghostbusters shielded their eyes from it as the voice of Maleficent echoed throughout the air.

**ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK, DR. STANTZ! THE FATE OF YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS WILL BE DETERMINED TONIGHT!**

J.G. looked to his teammates, who all appeared to be more concerned about him than themselves. This situation was starting to become more personal by the second, and Kim, Sean, Diana, and Alexis did not like it one bit. Detaching their Proton Guns from their Packs and gripping them firmly in their hands, the Ghostbusters cautiously went into the light. The team didn't know what to expect, coming out on the other side; it could've either been another dimension, another period in time, or hell itself. However, they soon discovered that it was none of the above; instead, they ended up on the Tipton rooftop…at least, they thought it was. The atmosphere was completely alien compared to their previous visit; it all resembled Hades' lair in the underworld; but, with the addition of Maleficent's thorns and her glowing staff protruding from Hades' throne, it was more like hers rather than his.

"Haven't they heard of 'equal share'?" Kim uttered.

The team ventured further out onto the rooftop, observing the eerie, haunting features that plagued it. Sean and Diana particularly noticed the stone statues that looked a lot like Pain and Panic and soon came to the realization that it was in fact them; they wondered what the idiotic minions could've done to bring Hades to the point where he could put that kind of a curse on them. It was then that Diana pondered aloud, "Does he even have that kind of power?"

Spengler scanned the minions' stoned figure up and down individually. "I'm not finding any readings here that indicate this is _his_ doing." He then turned and focused on the rest of the area, mostly the throne. "In fact…none of this shows any indication of Hades. It's Maleficent…all of it."

The other Ghostbusters exchanged curious looks.

"Then…where _is_ Hades?" Alexis searched.

They felt a chilling wind blow past them from the right and looked in that direction to see what caused it. J.G. was caught by surprise along with his teammates when he noticed Vanessa standing on the rooftop; she looked oddly calm and had a totally blank expression on her face.

"My God, Vanessa!" Stantz cried as he ran to her and gave a warm hug, which was a stark contrast to how ice-cold her body felt. "Are you alright, baby? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm fine, my love." Vanessa said in a very monotone voice that everyone but J.G. noticed.

"We have to get you to safety." He suggested. "This place isn't safe."

"Nowhere is safe, my love. Maleficent's plan is already set in motion. Look above us."

The group looked upward to the sky, seeing the purple vortex that had gotten wider than the building itself. Through the vortex, they could see clouds that were redder than blood, swirling along with the vortex. Body parts of different monsters and demons stuck out from the clouds, accompanied by their snarls and growls, which echoed through the air.

"It's the apocalypse, darling." Vanessa calmly specified. "The end of all life on Earth…and the beginning of a new one for all creatures of the underworld."

Kim raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Well, _you_ sound pretty cool about it."

"That's because Maleficent helped me see the true glory of it all." Vanessa remarked. "She's saving us from Armageddon…an impending war between two powerful underworld forces that would last for centuries!"

"By destroying our world?!" Alexis exclaimed.

"You don't understand." Spengler told Vanessa. "Creating this dimensional rift is going to wipe out both our world and the underworld…No one will survive this!"

"A sacrifice must be made," retorted Vanessa.

J.G. reacted in shock to the way his girlfriend was acting towards this nightmare, although his teammates somehow suspected this behavior from her. In fact, it was Alexis who finally realized something that had been on the minds of many who had met this strange woman; to put her suspicion to the test, she switched her "Combo Pack" from Slime Blower mode to Proton mode while aiming the thrower in Vanessa's direction without anyone noticing. "I couldn't agree with ya more, home-girl." She said before firing a particle stream that struck Vanessa directly in the chest and throwing her several feet across the air; she soared far enough to be completely thrown off the rooftop.

The eyes of the other Ghostbusters widened in horror over what Alexis had just done. J.G., who was the most mortified of them all, furiously turned to her and yelled, "ARE YOU _LOCO_?"

Before Alexis could explain herself, there was an enormous quake that knocked the Ghostbusters off their feet; then another one came that sent dust falling from the ceiling; and then another and another followed until the source of the quakes was revealed when a huge black tentacle whipped up from over the edge of the rooftop and slammed down hard near the Ghostbusters. The tentacle just barely missed Hades' throne and Maleficent's staff when it demolished most of the rooftop structure. When the Ghostbusters tried to get back to their feet, they were knocked down again just as another tentacle appeared and crashed down through the remainder of the rooftop's structure. All that had been left of Hades' fortress was his throne and the stoned figures of Pain and Panic. If the two minions were still conscious beneath that rock exterior, then they would absolutely be stricken with extreme terror; this was especially when a gigantic purple face with white hair had slowly risen right in front of them, glaring directly at the Ghostbusters.

The eyes of the team, looking up at the looming form of Ursula, widened in shock and fear. It then dawned upon Venkman, Spengler, Zeddemore, and especially Stantz that this "sea witch" had been posing as J.G.'s girlfriend the entire time; and who better than Kim to verbally express her amazement when she told J.G., "Aw, dude! Your girl really _is_ a witch!" Luckily, Stantz was in too much shock to give a retort for that statement; he much rather demanded to be given a reason for this betrayal.

"I don't understand. Why me? Why use me like that to help Maleficent give revenge on us?"

And with an ominous, echoing voice, Ursula responded, "Because _you_ are the _heart_ of the Ghostbusters! And what a better way of weakening your precious little band than striking the heart!"

Ursula's plan seemed to have worked as J.G. appeared to be heavily distraught by the fact that his one and only true girlfriend turned out to be another evil spirit. The other Ghostbusters noticed the despair upon his face while he looked down at the ground; it was enough to make both Alexis and Kim seriously angry at Ursula for doing this to him.

"Now that's cold, Sea Bitch…even for _you_!" Kim shouted. "My boy, Jay, is an awesome guy who knows how to treat a girl right! If there's anybody who's lost something great from this, it's _you_!"

Ursula bellowed with laughter. "Oh, really? How do you figure?"

"Because love is a lot stronger than you can imagine." Alexis told her. "Dr. Stantz is a great man. I might not know him as well as these other guys do, but I know him well enough to admit this: If I had someone as special as him in my life, I'd cherish every moment of our time together rather than exploit it like you have!"

These words caught J.G.'s attention just as immediately as Alexis said them; it reminded him of the great times he had with Vanessa when he wasn't aware of it all being a ploy, and it lifted his spirits again knowing that it was all coming from such a wonderful human being like Alexis Embers, whom he only had the pleasure of knowing for a couple of days before seeing how great she was not only as a Ghostbuster, but as a friend.

"Oh, please!" Ursula's booming voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Spare me the 'love lecture!' I had enough of it from that _little mermaid_!"

"Then maybe you'll like a lecture in physics!" Kim countered.

Without warning, the four original Ghostbusters opened fire on Ursula, their particle streams striking the face of the Sea Witch. She hollowed in pain as her hands went to her sizzling face and covered it; but soon that agonized hollowing was replaced with demented cackling as Ursula uncovered her face to reveal how it was not at all scorched from the blasts; seeing this, the Ghostbusters were starting to feel like their chances of defeating this evil spirit was slim to none. Apparently, Ursula's power was greatly amplified by Maleficent, making her practically immune to anything.

That was until Spengler thought about the extreme power that Alexis's Proton Pack had carried and knew there had to be a chance. Quickly, he told her, "Fire a short stream right at her chest!"

"You'd think it'd be enough?" She asked.

"Just do what the man says!" Kim exclaimed.

Alexis flipped the switch to the Proton setting and briefly fired a stream at the chest of Ursula; its power was heavy and intense enough to knock the Sea Witch back, forcing all of the tentacles she had clinging to the building to pop off and leave her falling down the side. Diana smiled brightly over the result of the powerful blast. "Oh, sweet!" She looked to the Pack on Alexis's back and gently patted it with her black-gloved hand. "I don't know where this little toy came from, but I'm sure glad that it's here now!"

There was another tremor that shook the building, and the Ghostbusters had assumed it was a result of Ursula hitting the street far below. Realizing there were still citizens down there, possibly still recovering from Maleficent's curse, the Ghostbusters ran to the edge and looked over to make sure the damage was not massive. Luckily, Ursula's colossal form never reached the street; unfortunately, she regained enough strength to cling back onto the building and begin climbing back up to the rooftop with much force and intensity. The furious expression on her face told how determined she was to get to her adversaries, despite the fact she was grasping onto prickly thorns to propel her climb.

"Got any more tricks under your hat, Sean?" Kim quizzed.

Spengler gazed around at what was left of the demolished rooftop; he focused his gaze on the throne and the staff that hadn't budged from it since it was stuck right in. "There!" he exclaimed as he pointed to it. "That's got to be the source of Maleficent's power!"

Venkman scoffed. "Obviously!"

Alexis then stepped forward and aimed her thrower directly at the staff. "I'll destroy it before you can say…"

_FLOOM!_

A wall of green fire suddenly shot out in front of them, its immense heat sending them falling back. When the flames subsided, the form of Hades appeared before them, standing in the way of Maleficent's staff. The flames on his body had intensified, growing to at least four feet from all parts of him, and he appeared to be much, much taller than the Ghostbusters last remembered seeing him.

"Okay, seriously…_somebody_ is sellin' some type of supernatural drug around here to make these guys so jacked!" Kim joked.

J.G. pointed a finger at the Lord of the Underworld and said, "We stopped you once before, Hades! We can do it again tonight!"

"But can you do it with Hades no longer here?" The evil god said with Maleficent's voice echoing behind his before firing a huge fireball at the Ghostbusters.

The team dodged out of the way in time for the fireball to strike at the edge of the rooftop instead, causing a large chunk to break away and take the stoned figures of Pain and Panic with it; it all fell down to the climbing Ursula, who swiped at it with one tentacle, smashing everything to pieces. Every piece of Pain and Panic was turned to dust and left floating into the wind.

The Ghostbusters hid behind huge pieces of debris to avoid the fiery blasts that Hades sent at them. This kind of power was unexpected from even Hades. There was no doubt that the god had been possessed by the spirit of Maleficent; although that sounded remarkably unbelievable or improbable to them, it was the only explanation for all that was happening. Only the power of the "God of the Dead" could truly enhance the powers of a dead sorceress like Maleficent.

"You know, when the risks always get higher like this, it tends to be such a pain in the ass!" Kim exclaimed as she hid behind a chunk of debris along with Diana and J.G. Across from them were Sean and Alexis, who both looked over the jagged edge at Hades/Maleficent; they suddenly noticed a fireball hurled in their direction and dodged in time for it to explode around them, flames cascading over the edges. The heat felt extremely intense and slightly scorched some parts of their flight suits.

Angered by how defenseless they seemed to be, Alexis no longer saw any point in hiding herself from this menace. Without a second thought, she rolled away from the hiding spot she shared with Spengler and got behind another that was a few feet closer to Maleficent. Spengler, seeing what she had done, knew she was bound to get herself killed with such a risky move; then he realized the opportunity of distracting Maleficent while Alexis went after the staff. As quick as he could, Sean stood up from his hiding spot and fired a stream at Hades/Maleficent; it connected with his/her shoulder, not enough to scratch it, but enough to make Maleficent angry; she turned to Spengler, just as he ducked back behind the debris, and attempted to unleash another fireball at his location. It was then that Venkman popped up and shot out her own stream, attracting Maleficent's attention towards her.

Kim ducked back down while Sean stood up again and fired another brief but affective stream. J.G. and Diana saw what they were doing and began to catch on. "We'll scatter across different spots," said Stantz. "Anyplace that would drive her focus away from the throne."

Zeddemore and Stantz did just that, hiding behind two other separate chunks of debris and took turns firing streams at Hades/Maleficent with Spengler and Venkman. The four original Ghostbusters created different patterns while firing upon the entity, so that she would be too confused to figure it out. With her trying so hard to destroy them as the streams hit certain areas of Hades' body, it was a good enough distraction to allow Alexis to sneak in behind Maleficent and slowly approach the throne. The staff protruding from it was glowing brighter by the minute and the vortex that it was pointing directly toward had engulfed half of the sky. All of existence depended on what Alexis had done next.

As she aimed her Proton Gun at the glowing orb of the staff, she suddenly noticed a huge fluff of white hair sticking out from over the edge, signifying Ursula's return. _It's either now or never_, she thought, directing her attention back to the staff. Ursula's body appeared from the edge of the rooftop, looming right behind the four original Ghostbusters; her massive shadow engulfed them, and they stopped firing long enough to turn around and see her ominous form.

Ursula glared at the Ghostbusters and shrieked in fury. Then, in the corner of her eye, she spotted Alexis aiming her weapon at the staff. Panicked, she immediately alerted Maleficent. "WATCH OUT!"

Maleficent turned and her eyes widened, just as Alexis fired her stream at the glowing orb. As the protonic energy surrounded it, the orb cracked apart; and then, once it had shattered, a bright flash of white light emitted from the throne and swallowed up everyone on the rooftop, including Ursula. The Sea Witch shielded her eyes, but it was soon to no avail; they instantly burned to ash at the same time her tentacles and other parts of her had as well; she let out a horrid scream before she finally faded away, nothing more than ash scattered in the wind.

The white light soon reached the rest of the thorn-shrouded building, each and every thorn burned away into ash. All of the Tipton Hotel shined like a ten-thousand watt light bulb in the middle of the city, momentarily turning night into day. The demons and monsters in the swirling vortex above had growled at the white light, which burned the parts of their bodies every time they tried to reach out for it. It shined immensely into the vortex, slowing down its growing and swirling process while shrinking it down. Within seconds, the vortex had vanished, leaving no trace of it behind.

The city of New York suddenly stopped glowing green and returned to its natural, individual colors; the sky above it had been cleared of the black clouds, revealing the dawn approaching at the horizon. It was by this time that the white light surrounding the Tipton Hotel had extinguished. The rooftop was heavily smoking afterwards, and the people on it were not moving; all they _were_ doing was lying across the floor, completely motionless. They remained inert for minutes until Alexis opened up her bright blue eyes and gasped. After a few coughs, she slowly and carefully got to her feet, feeling extremely dizzy and cold at the same time; but she soon felt relieved once she noticed Maleficent's staff lying in pieces over the remains of Hades' throne. She also realized the vortex was missing and all of New York City no longer glowing.

"Ohhhh, man!" She heard J.G.'s voice near her and turned to see him sprawled over the floor and smoking.

Alexis ran over to him and knelt down beside his body, checking it for any signs of cuts, bruises, or burns. There didn't appear to be any, yet that didn't stop her from asking, "Are you O.K.?"

She seemed to have gotten her answer once he started laughing. "I hadn't had a rush like that since Spengler and I tested out our theory on electromagnetic microwaves!" Although it was an odd response to what had just occurred, Alexis was just glad to know he was alright. "You saved the world, Alexis…and you really could've gotten yourself killed doing it."

Alexis sheepishly smiled and shrugged. "It seemed like the coolest thing to do at the time."

As she helped Stantz to his feet, they looked to the other Ghostbusters, seeing their smoking forms slowly begin to shift. They soon got up and took a deep breath, recovering from the unnatural occurrence they were involved in. One look around, and they realized how everything was back to normal. The only thing that stood out of place from the previous chaos was Hades, who lied on the ground motionless and non-flammable; his eyes were wide open, as was his mouth, giving off a rather disturbing, hypnotic expression. The bottom of his black toga was no longer shrouded in a dark gray fog. Instead, for the first time ever, pale blue feet stuck out from it, complete with disgusting yellowish brown toenails that stuck out like talons.

"Hey, check out Hades." Diana indicated as they crouched around him. "What's up with him?"

Sean pulled out the P.K.E. Meter and scanned across Hades' body. The bewildered look on his face after checking out the readouts described what kind of information he received. "He's mortal," he suddenly informed. "The readings indicate that he no longer has any levels of psycho-kinetic energy surrounding him."

Kim shook her head in confusion. "Wait just a minute. How is _that_ possible?"

"That wave of energy the staff had given off after it was destroyed," Sean remarked, "when it disrupted Maleficent's psycho-kinetic hold over the city, it must've also disrupted the link between her and Hades."

"So it took her out of him?" Alexis inquired.

"And all of Hades' godly powers, too." J.G. added.

Venkman felt that she didn't need to worry about the little details. All that really mattered to her was that peace and order had once again been restored, and all was well with the world. She happily clapped her hands and said, "Mission accomplished. New York's back to normal, Hades has been reduced to a vegetable, and Ursula and Maleficent are dead…again."

"What if this isn't _totally_ over?" Diana examined. "I mean, the last time we took advantage of a situation like this, we ended getting marshmallow stuck in our…"

_KA-KURRRRRR!_

A bolt of green lightning shot out from the clear sky and struck the rooftop, nearly striking the Ghostbusters; they looked up to see where it had come from, and it shocked them to find out how there were no clouds for it to emerge out from. However, there was some kind of a small green light that almost looked like a star, and that was exactly what they believed it to be until it started growing and swirling, much like the vortex from before. Its size increased to the point that it had become some sort of dimensional portal; but, unlike the previous vortex, there was only one monster or demon that appeared: **a massive, four-headed, four-winged purple and black dragon**.

"Oh, my god!" Alexis shouted as she watched the supernatural creature fly out from the portal and make its way for the Tipton rooftop. "It's comin' right toward us!"

"Then let's not give it the chance!" Kim suggested before she and the other three original Ghostbusters fired streams at the dragon, hitting areas of its body, from the chest to the wings. Despite the efforts of the team, the deformed dragon continued coming towards the rooftop, green flames seeping from its mouths. It let out a horrid shriek that echoed throughout the sky, blowing out several windows from nearby skyscrapers. The Ghostbusters continued to fire, but they eventually saw the lack of help it had done.

Witnessing their useless attempts at stopping the remarkable creature, Alexis suddenly had a sense of déjà vu as she thought back to her battle with Cerberus; a multi-headed behemoth like him could only be slowed down through attacks on the heads themselves. Although this would only slow it down, there had to be something more powerful to put an end to it, and the only power Alexis could think of for such a situation was the weapon she held in her hands.

"Aim for its heads!" She told her teammates.

The four original Ghostbusters did as the rookie had instructed and fired streams at the dragon's four heads, one stream for each head. Alexis's plan instantly worked; the moment that the streams struck the heads, the dragon stopped and hovered in midair, flailing its arms and wings about in agony. Smoke formed from its heads, but no burns or marks were put on them. That was where Alexis stepped in and aimed the Proton Gun of her highly advanced Proton Pack directly at the dragon's torso; she fired a long, heavy stream that struck the monster's body with great force. To the surprise of her teammates, the stream was successfully burning through the dragon's once-impenetrable skin. The monster howled immensely from the intense pain, feeling itself dying each second the stream burned through it.

Everything seemed to have been going according to plan until Alexis's Proton Pack began rapidly beeping. A red light on her Proton Gun flashed repeatedly while parts of the Pack started smoking. Noticing this, Sean quickly went into panic. "Alexis! Shut off your stream! Your Pack's overheating!"

"Not until I've pushed it back into the portal!" Alexis responded as more smoke poured out from the Pack, clouding the entire area.

Kim and the others coughed; the smell that the smoke gave off being close to burnt rubber mixed with sweaty socks. "Seriously, girl! Shut it off! We can take it from here!"

Alexis shook her head. "Your Packs aren't strong enough to finish the job!" She nodded her head towards the rooftop exit. "Go! Get the hell outta here! If this thing blows, I don't want you guys to be caught in the explosion!"

"NO!" J.G. yelled. "We're getting out of this together!"

Alexis winced, feeling the Proton Gun getting hotter under her grip; she looked up at the dragon and saw a flaming hole gaping wide open in its stomach. The longer she fired the powerful stream, the further the monster had been pushed back towards the portal. Once again, she turned to her teammates and cried, "GO! NOW!"

For a moment, the Ghostbusters hesitated, not wanting to leave one of their own behind to deal with the impending danger alone; but, with Alexis too stubborn to shut off the overheating machine, it would be too risky to stay and try to convince her any longer. They shut off their own streams and ran away, taking the senseless mortal known as Hades along with them in their escape. Sean and Kim carried him over their shoulders to the door that lead to the stairwell. While they were exiting through the door, J.G. stopped and looked behind to see how Alexis was holding up; he was shocked to see what effects the overheating Pack had on her: it suddenly began to burn away sections of her flight suit; the gloves she had been wearing melted, exposing her hands to the intense heat given off from the Proton Gun; her flesh sizzled, and her sweating, reddened face registered extreme pain in response to it.

"Jay! Come on!" He heard Diana call out to him from halfway down the stairwell; but he didn't budge an inch. It disheartened him to see this girl – the one person who _truly_ cared about him – sacrifice her own life for them.

_I'm not leaving her behind._

Gripping his Proton Gun firmly, he ran back to Alexis, whose flight suit had halfway burnt away and rendered her partially scorched and naked. The massive dragon she fired upon had reached closer to the portal, just as Alexis had intended. Its remarkable energy, combined with that of the particle stream from the Proton Pack, was enough to generate a great collapse. The portal instantly closed, crushing the dragon's huge body in the process. It let out one final shriek of agony before vanishing into nothingness.

The worn-out Alexis Embers shut off her stream, but only several minutes too late. The Proton Pack continued to smoke, overheat, and beep. She attempted to take it off her body, but it gave her too much pain to do so. It was on the brink of self-destructing, and it planned on taking her along with it.

"ALEXIS!" Stantz cried as he continued to run to her.

Her bloodshot eyes grew wide in shock upon seeing him come towards her. She reached out in his direction and attempted to drive him off again, but she suddenly felt a bizarre sensation overwhelm her body as if it were dissolving to pieces. This was just as a bright blue light shined beneath her and engulfed her entire body. She screamed…or at least she thought she had…as everything went white right before her very eyes.

From a distance, J.G. watched as a wall of blue protonic energy came towards him and knock him right off his feet. As it phased through his body, he felt like every molecule in him had jumped, giving off a weird tickling sensation over his body. He fell on his back, with his Proton Pack somewhat breaking his fall, and remained there momentarily.

The blue protonic energy continued its trek throughout the city, coming in contact with several buildings and knocking out the electricity within them. It even went as far as disintegrating small chunks of them, exposing their interiors. Inside the Tipton Hotel, Spengler, Venkman, and Zeddemore felt an odd tremor as the lights in the stairwell went out and were replaced with red emergency ones.

Back on the rooftop, J.G. got to his feet and looked over the edge to see the blue protonic energy reach outside the city limits and dissolve, no longer a threat to any other organic and non-organic forms in any other areas. After witnessing its disappearance, J.G. turned to where the source of the energy had come from: Alexis and her advanced Proton Pack. He saw her lying sideways on the floor with the Proton Pack reduced to a smoking chunk of rubble on her back. In J.G. Stantz's eyes, she appeared to be dead. "Oh, no." He immediately ran to her and knelt down to check and see if she was still alive. Much to his fright, he soon realized that she had no pulse. "Alexis…my god." The best he could do at this point was administer C.P.R. and hope that some life would come back into this bold, brave young woman.

**END OF CHAPTER TWELVE**


	13. Epilogue

**Epilogue: If There's Something Strange In Your Neighborhood...**

Two Weeks Later

"She's dead, Jay!" Diana yelled. "It's time to face facts and move on."

"No!" J.G. retorted. "I love her. And I'm not gonna give up."

"What's the point, dude?" Kim asked. "She's gone forever and never going to come back, no matter how much you try to believe it."

"I paid $50,000 for this old rust bucket, Venkman!" Stantz pounded his fist on the hood of the still heavily wrecked Ecto-1, which was parked in the repaired garage area of the partially reconstructed firehouse headquarters. "So don't tell me _she_ cannot be fixed!"

Kim and Diana shook their heads over the youth's naivety as Spengler walked out from the basement with Christina Melnitz, Alex Russo, and the former Ajax Exterminators. "I can't believe you used the old Ghost Trap tactic I taught you," Sean told Christina. "I never expected you to actually pay attention to what I was saying about it."

"Well, of course, Sean." She said. "What else did you think I was paying attention to?"

"My epidermis, perhaps?" Sean remarked with a grin.

"Eww!" Alex cried.

"Uh, that's another name for your skin, Alex." Mickey alerted her.

A sheepish look appeared on Alex's face as she realized her blunder. "Oh," she said before her disgusted expression returned again when she added, "But still…Eww!"

There was an electronic ring tone to the Ghostbusters' company theme song heard from Spengler's cell phone in the right pocket of his beige pants. As he pulled it out and answered it, Cody Martin walked through the half of the entrance that still had a gaping hole in it; he had a bright smile on his face upon walking in. "Cody Martin! Reporting for his first day of duty as an honorary Junior Ghostbuster!" The boy stood up straight and performed a salute to the senior members.

"You're in the Ghostbusters business, dude…not the army." Alex jested.

Mickey chuckled over Cody's enthusiasm. "Oh, boy! It sure does feel great being the very first Junior Ghostbusters."

"Yeah!" Donald gleefully cheered.

"We get to wear purdy uniforms, too." Goofy added.

"Well, not yet, you don't." Christina said as she reached into her purse and pulled out five buttons that had the famous "No-Ghost" insignia; she handed them to Alex, Cody, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, who all seemed slightly distraught. "Hey, it's only temporary…at least until we find sizeable flight suits for kids, mice, ducks, and…man-dog…things."

The new Junior Ghostbusters turned to each other and shrugged their shoulders, just feeling glad that they were on the team. That was when the thought of being newcomers reminded Mickey of another: Alexis Embers. "Gosh…I really hope Miss Embers is O.K."

Christina let out a deep, worried sigh. "So do I, sweetie. She really sacrificed a lot to save everyone. And, to be honest, she's more of a legend than any of us turned out to be."

They heard Sean nearby thanking the person on the other line before hanging up the phone; he then turned to everyone in the garage and said, "That was Dr. Sung. He says that Alexis has made a full recovery and is checking out of the hospital right now."

Kim and the others looked extremely surprised by this update. "For real? Well…that's…that's awesome news!"

J.G. urgently turned his attention away from the Ecto-1 and towards Spengler. "When he said 'full recovery,' you mean…she's totally healed from all of her burns?"

Sean seemed a bit hesitant to answer Stantz's inquiry at first, looking towards Christina, who instantly noticed his look of concern; finally, he answered, "According to Dr. Sung…she looks like a woman who'd never been in an accident her whole life."

Stantz smiled and sighed in relief; he felt a hand touch his shoulder and looked to his right to see that it was Kim, who also smiled, sharing his moment of relief and happiness. "How about we go give our girl, Alexis, a visit?" Kim suggested. "I'm sure that's a fine way of saying 'Excellent work.' Wouldn't you think so, Jay?"

J.G.'s smile grew larger and brighter. "Yeah. I think it's an awesome idea."

"Well, let's go congratulate our hero," said Diana as she reached inside a newly constructed locker, lined up right next to hers and the other three Ghostbusters, and pulled out a fresh, clean flight suit that had the name "Embers" stitched in red on a black nametag, "And our newest member of the team."

"Hey! How come _she_ gets a uniform?" questioned a jealous Donald.

"Well, when _you_ put your life on the line for all humanity, perhaps you'll get one." Cody defended.

"I don't know who'd honestly want to wear a uniform with the name 'Duck' on it." Alex bantered, which generated laughter from everyone, except for Donald himself.

The duck squawked a long line of cursing as they all exited the firehouse, heading to J.G.'s parked Volvo outside. Christina stopped once she noticed that Sean was still standing where he was, staring off into space and lost in thought. "Aren't you coming?" she asked him, but he didn't respond right away. "Sean? Are you okay, hon?"

Suddenly, he snapped out of his trance when he noticed Christina walking towards him. "Huh? I'm sorry. Did you say something?"

Her focus shifted from his handsome brown eyes, hid behind glasses that glimmered when the light hit them, to the cell phone that he still carried in his hand. "What else did the doctor tell you about Alexis?"

Again, Spengler hesitated with a direct answer. "He mentioned that he'd never seen a _normal_ human being recover so quickly from the burns she sustained in the accident in his entire career."

One word in that sentence truly stuck out to Melnitz as peculiar. "What did he mean 'normal'?"

"There were blood tests done in the seventh day of recovery, at which Alexis's third-degree burns had rejuvenated to those in the first degree with no help from any medication or remedies of any kind." Sean informed. "The tests came back as 'unknown,' but they found bizarre anomalies in the blood, as if they had been taken from someone who had recently been…deceased."

Christina couldn't stifle a chuckle. "You've got be kiddin' me!" She stopped once she saw how serious he was. "Sean, she's checkin' out of the hospital today, alive and kickin'! It's impossible to take blood from a dead person, especially somebody with a heartbeat and a pulse!"

"According to Dr. Sung, she doesn't have either of those." Sean remarked, which got a stunned reaction from Christina. "I'm starting to believe that something extraordinarily bad occurred on that rooftop when Alexis's Proton Pack overloaded. The amount of explosive power in that machine is equivalent to a total protonic reversal."

"You mean like when you guys cross the streams?"

"Precisely."

The two shared a concerned feeling to this revelation. Christina was just starting to see Sean's fear in what could've possibly happened in the aftermath of Alexis Embers' accident; but, despite much of the concern, she still made an attempt to be rational with this situation. "Even science couldn't explain this kind of a miracle, and I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Still, I…"

_HONK! HONK!_

They heard the rumbling of J.G.'s Volvo outside, just as Kim ran back inside and shouted to the two, "Hey, c'mon! We're burnin' gas out here! And in today's economy, that don't come cheap!"

Sean and Christina rolled her eyes, annoyed by Venkman's impatience, but also delighted that she snapped them out of their moment of caution. Silently deciding to put the topic on hold for a more reasonable time, they followed Kim out of the firehouse and hopped into the Volvo. As he sat in the back of the vehicle, Sean seemed highly impressed of how much room there was in it. "You know, Jay…there's enough space in this car to give it a full enhancement for another Ecto model."

"I _still_ believe the Ecto-1 can be fixed." Stantz declared.

"Okay. Seriously, dude…let it go," said an annoyed Kim.

The Volvo roared down the street, moving faster than most of the other vehicles traveling down it; however, none of them took notice of the strange activity occurring right in the middle of it as a manhole cover started to shift on its own. It suddenly rose up, unleashing the foul septic odor that it contained in the sewers. If there was any clue of how this manhole cover moved on its own, it had to be the skeletal hand that popped out from under it, clawing at the concrete; this and the dark, heavy voice that echoed the word…

_**FREEDOM!**_


End file.
